52% Say SOTU Address Increased Confidence in Obama's Understanding of Their Concerns
UTICA, NY - President Barack Obama's job approval rating is now 44%, one point higher than in the last Zogby Interactive poll taken one month ago. This most recent Jan. 27-31, 2011 poll of likely voters also finds continued increases in approval of Congress and that the nation is headed in the right direction. However, both remain well below 50%.
Response to Obama's State of the Union Address is more positive than negative. Among those who watched or heard the address, 54% gave it marks of excellent (29%) or good (25%), with 20% calling it fair and 26% poor. Also, 52% said the address made them more confident that Obama understands the concerns of people like them.
Overall, do you approve or disapprove of Barack Obama's job as president?
|
Obama Job Performance |
Jan. |
Jan. |
Dec. |
Dec. |
Nov. |
Nov. |
Nov. |
Nov. |
Oct. |
Oct. |
Oct. |
Oct. |
Oct. |
|
Approve |
44% |
43% |
39% |
42% |
39% |
42% |
42% |
45% |
43% |
47% |
46% |
44% |
49% |
|
Disapprove |
56% |
56% |
61% |
58% |
60% |
58% |
57% |
54% |
56% |
53% |
54% |
56% |
51% |
|
Not sure |
<1% |
1% |
<1% |
<1% |
1% |
<1% |
1% |
<1% |
<1% |
<1% |
<1% |
<1% |
<1% |
Totals may not add up to 100% due to rounding
Sixty percent of voters say they watched or heard the president's address. Those who did skewed toward Democrats, with 74% of Democrats having done so compared to 47% of Republicans and 59% of independents.
Those numbers are lower for the Republican response by Rep. Paul Ryan, as 49% watched or heard it. There was no drop off among Republicans, but the number of Democrats (51%) and independents (48%) did fall. Response to Ryan's speech is slightly less positive than it was for Obama, as 22% rated it excellent, 27% good, 28% fair and 22% poor.
Voters are evenly split as to whether Obama or Ryan best outlined policies that will lead the nation in the right direction.
The percentage saying the nation is headed in the right direction gained one point from a month ago, and is now 30%. However, 58% believe that the country is going in the wrong direction.
Job approval for Congress is up again, and is now 27%. Last month, it was 21% and on Dec. 10 it was just 12%. Approval of Congressional Republicans increased to 33%, an eight-point jump from a month ago. Approval of Congressional Democrats was also 33%, a one-point increase from a month ago.
The interactive poll of 2,065 likely voters has a margin of error of +/-2.2%. A sampling of Zogby International's online panel, which is representative of the adult population of the U.S., was invited to participate. Slight weights were added to region, party, age, race, religion, gender, and education to more accurately reflect the population.