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POLITICS

50% Give Obama Poor Marks On Economy

With the debate over the nation’s debt ceiling dragging on and consumer confidence near two-year lows, voters are souring even more on President Obama's handling of economic issues.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 36% of Likely U.S. Voters give the president good or excellent marks when it comes to the economy. But 50% say the president is doing a poor job, up seven points from 43% two weeks ago.  (To see survey question wording, click here.)

This ties the highest negative finding of Obama's presidency, last measured in October 2010. Positive ratings for the president in the economic area have remained in the 30s for the past several months.

The Political Class, however, thinks the president is doing just fine, with 60% who rate his economic performance as good or excellent.  Sixty percent (60%) of Mainstream voters, by contrast, rate Obama's handling of the economy as poor.

As has been the case for months, the president earns better marks when it comes to national security. Forty-five percent (45%) rate the president's performance in this area as good or excellent, while just 28% view it as poor.

The president received a bounce in his national security ratings following the killing of Osama bin Laden in early May and those ratings have stabilized since. Over the past year prior to the bin Laden killing, positive marks had mostly stayed in the high 30s to mid-40s. His poor marks hovered in the 30s and 40s during the same period.

(Want a free daily e-mail update?  If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.  

The national survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on July 26-27, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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