The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows that 33% of the nation's voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-five percent (35%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -2. This is the third straight day the Approval Index has been below zero (see trends).

A Rasmussen video report notes that 42% now give the President good or excellent marks for handling the economy . That’s his lowest rating to date (Premium Members can see crosstabs and trends.Thirty-seven percent (37%) say the country is heading in the right direction.

The Presidential Approval Index is calculated by subtracting the number who Strongly Disapprove from the number who Strongly Approve. It is updated daily at 9:30 a.m. Eastern (sign up for free daily e-mail update). Updates also available on Twitter.

Overall, 53% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance so far. Forty-six percent (46%) disapprove. During June, there was little change in the party affiliation of the American people and Democrats retain a 7-percentage point advantage.

Rasmussen Reports will not be polling for the next few days due to the Fourth of July holiday. New data will be released each day on our home page and we will resume the Presidential Tracking Poll on Sunday. Next Approval Index update will be released at 9:30 a.m. Eastern on Monday morning.

Public support for Judge Sonia Sotomayor slipped following the highly publicized Supreme Court reversal of a decision involving New Haven firefighters. Voters are evenly divided as to whether or not she should be confirmed.

Most Americans expect violence in Iraq to increase now that U.S. troops have left that nation’s cities. However, by a four-to-one margin, Americans say that the Iraqis should deal with the problem on their own.

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On the Generic Congressional Ballot, Republicans now have a two-point edge.

Americans are evenly divided on the climate change bill passed by the House last week—37% favor it and 41% are opposed. Forty-two percent (42%) believe it will hurt the economy and 19% believe it will help. Most (56%) are not willing to pay more in taxes and utility costs to fight Global Warming.

Nationally, 50% favor passage of the health care reform proposal being crafted by Obama and Congressional Democrats. Forty-five percent (45%) are opposed. On a state level, just 26% of Massachusetts voters rate that state’s health care reform a success while 37% say it’s been a failure. Only 10% say it’s improved the quality of health care.

As the Fourth of July approaches, 82% of American adults would rather live in the USA rather than anywhere else in the world. Most Americans (54%) believe the United States is truly a nation of liberty and justice for all.

The Daily Prediction Challenge gives you the chance to predict the results of upcoming polls.

When comparing Job Approval data from different firms, it’s important to keep in mind that polls of likely voters and polls of all adults will typically and consistently yield different results. In the case of President Obama, polls by all firms measuring all adults typically show significantly higher approval ratings than polls of likely voters. Polls of registered voters typically fall in the middle. Other factors are also important to consider when comparing Job Approval ratings from different polling firms.

If you’d like Scott Rasmussen to speak at your meeting, retreat, or conference, contact Premiere Speakers Bureau. You can also learn about Scott’s favorite place on earth or his time working with hockey legend Gordie Howe.

A Fordham University professor has rated the national pollsters on their record in Election 2008. We also have provided a summary of our results for your review.

Daily tracking results are collected via telephone surveys of 500 likely voters per night and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. The margin of sampling error—for the full sample of 1,500 Likely Voters--is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Results are also compiled on a full-week basis and crosstabs for full-week results are available for Premium Members.

Like all polling firms, Rasmussen Reports weights its data to reflect the population at large (see methodology). Among other targets, Rasmussen Reports weights data by political party affiliation using a dynamic weighting process. While partisan affiliation is generally quite stable over time, there are a fair number of people who waver between allegiance to a particular party or independent status. Over the past four years, the number of Democrats in the country has increased while the number of Republicans has decreased.

Our baseline targets are established based upon separate survey interviews with a sample of adults nationwide completed during the preceding three months (a total of 45,000 interviews) and targets are updated monthly. Currently, the baseline targets for the adult population are 40.1% Democrats, 33.1% Republicans , and 26.7% unaffiliated. Likely voter samples typically show a slightly smaller advantage for the Democrats.

A review of last week’s key polls is posted each Saturday morning. Other stats on Obama are updated daily on the Rasmussen Reports Obama By the Numbers page. We also invite you to review other recent demographic highlights from the tracking polls.