Poll: Obama Five Times Worse Than Carter on Economy

September 8, 2011 RSS Feed Print

Two new polls today find that just one third of the public feels President Obama deserves re-election while five times more Americans think Obama has done a worse job fixing the economy than Jimmy Carter, the modern era's Herbert Hoover.

Washington Whispers contributor John Zogby tells us that his new polling is spirit-crushing for the depressed White House. "It was a very bad week for Barack Obama. Our polling shows his job approval at 39 percent and the percentage saying he deserves re-election at 33 percent, both the lowest of his term, while the percentage of voters saying the nation is on the wrong track reached a high since he took office at 75 percent," he said. [Read: What Obama Can and Can't Do to Create Jobs.]

With job growth at zero last month and the president sinking, Zogby said there is even more pressure on Obama to hit one out of the park in tonight's jobs speech before a joint session of Congress.

"As so often happens, something with little policy importance, the scheduling of his jobs speech to Congress, becomes a bigger deal by strengthening the media theme that Obama is weak and easily pushed around by the Republicans. He needs to come out swinging in that speech to regain a passing grade," said the pollster. [See editorial cartoons on the economy.]

But the public's view, like wet cement, may be setting when it comes with their dissatisfaction with the president's handling of the economy.

The latest Washington Whispers Internet poll finds that nearly half the nation thinks Obama has been the worst at fixing the economy in modern times. Carter, is seen as more than five times better than Obama on fixing the economy. [See 7 ways Obama can gain credibility on jobs.]

We posed the question this way: "Many recent presidents up for reelection have struggled with troubled economies and growing unemployment like the current situation. Which of the following was the worst at fixing the economy?"

President Obama - 47 percent.

George H.W. Bush - 40 percent.

Jimmy Carter - 8 percent.

Ronald Reagan - 5 percent.