Obama Approval Ratings Don't Maintain Surge

Pollster John Zogby updates our weekly Obama Report Card with a grade on the president's performance. Zogby uses his polling, expert analysis and interaction with major players to come up with a grade and some comments that capture how he sees the president's week ending.

John Zogby on Week 89:

President Obama is losing his chief economic advisor Lawrence Summers to Harvard University and his Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to Chicago where Emanuel plans to run for mayor. Those are the subheads in a week the president went headlong into campaign mode with a university speech urging students to "stick with me" and a Rolling Stone interview in which he gave liberal activists a verbal kick in the butt to get involved in congressional campaigns. Our September 27 polling found Obama's job approval and Democratic standing in the congressional generic ballot did not maintain gains found the previous week. Obama went to the United Nations to talk about aid to poor nations and urge China re-value its currency, with administration sources hinting about the threat of new trade actions against China.

This week's grade: C

Last week's: B-

John Zogby is president and CEO of Zogby International, a public opinion, research, and business solutions firm with experience working in more than 70 countries around the globe. Founded and led by Zogby since 1984, Zogby International specializes in telephone, Internet, and face-to-face survey research and analysis for corporate, political, nonprofit, and governmental clients. The firm is headquartered in Utica, N.Y. John Zogby is also the author of The Way We'll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream (Random House).

• Read more about the 2010 elections.
• Check out our editorial cartoons on the Democratic Party.
• See photos of the Obamas behind the scenes.

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