For the First Time, More Than Half of American Public Is against Obama

According to polls, 51 percent of Americans disapprove of Obama’s administration, and 73 percent of Americans thinks that the country is still in a recession.

WASHINGTON – For the first time since arriving at the White House in January 2009, President Barack Obama faces the disapproval of most of the U.S. public, according to The Wall Street Journal and an NBC News poll.

The opinion poll published today is based on a thousand interviews carried out between Aug. 27 and Aug. 31: 51 percent of the interviewees express disapproval of Obama’s administration, against 44 percent that approves it. In the same way, 73 percent of the interviewees think that the country is still in a recession. According to the daily newspaper, the opinion poll shows “a level of pessimism not seen since late 2008, as the financial crisis struck.”

The U.S. economy fell into a recession in December 2007 and came out of the recession in July 2009, but according to this opinion poll, more of 70 percent of the interviewees believe that the economic situation has not hit rock bottom yet. In any case the newspaper adds that most people think that Obama did not cause the economic crisis but inherited it from George W. Bush.

The results of the opinion poll suggest that 44 percent of interviewees now prefer to vote for a Republican candidate in next year’s presidential elections, compared to the 40 percent willing to re-elect Obama. In June, in a similar opinion poll, Obama had an advantage of 45 to 40 percent.

“The president is losing support from key groups, including political independents, women and Hispanics,” says the newspaper.

Negative opinions about President Obama last month reached 56 percent among factory workers. One of the sectors that backed Obama’s candidacy in 2008 was the one of the labor unions, but in the opinion poll that The Wall Street Journal and NBC published today, now almost 49 percent of the members of these unions have a negative opinion of Obama’s administration, in comparison to the 45 percent that approves of Obama’s administration.