Approval of Obama, Democrats Declines, Pew Poll SaysAug. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Barack Obama’s approval rating declined as a growing number of Americans said the Democratic president and Republican leaders aren’t working together on important issues.
In a poll from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, 63 percent of Americans said they thought the two sides weren’t working together. While 29 percent of respondents said Republicans are most to blame for the lack of cooperation, 17 percent cited Obama, up from 7 percent in February, Pew said.
Obama’s job-approval rating fell 3 percentage points, to 51 percent from 54 percent in July, within the survey’s error margin of plus-or-minus 2.5 percentage points. His rating stood at 61 percent in June.
Independents were almost evenly divided, with 45 percent saying they approved of Obama’s performance and 43 percent saying they disapproved. In June, independents approved of Obama’s job performance by almost a 2-to-1 margin.
Approval ratings for the Democratic Party also fell, with 49 percent of Americans saying they viewed the party favorably. That’s down 10 percentage points from April, Washington-based Pew reported. Democrats had a 62 percent favorable rating just before Obama’s inauguration in January. The 40 percent approval rating for the Republican Party has held steady all year.