These poll numbers were released earlier today by Rasmussen Reports -- "an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information."
Obama Gets An Incomplete for First Year
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Just 19% of voters nationwide believe that President Obama achieved most of his goals during his first year in office. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 70% hold the opposite view and say he did not accomplish those goals.
Republicans and unaffiliated voters overwhelmingly say the president did not achieve most of his goals. Forty-nine percent (49%) of Democrats agree, but 31% of those in the president's party say he did accomplish them.
"President Obama appears to have earned an incomplete for his first year in office," notes Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports. "Mid-term grades will be issued in November, and a lot can happen between now and then."
Voters also are skeptical about claims the president made in his State-of-the-Union speech Wednesday night concerning tax cuts, economic growth and job creation.
After his first year in office, 35% give Obama good or excellent marks for his handling of the economy, and 40% say the same about national security. Seventy-two percent (72%) view the president as politically liberal (see Obama By the Numbers ). For most of the past month, just under half of the nation's voters have approved of the way he has handled his overall job as president (see daily Presidential Tracking Poll .
Confidence about the War on Terror is at the lowest level since the middle of 2007, and just 36% now believe the United States is safer than it was before the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001.
Last February, the president listed four budget priorities in a speech to Congress. Since then, voters have consistently rated cutting the deficit in half by the end of his first term as the most important objective with health care second. Voters also see deficit reduction as the goal least likely to be achieved.
While voters would like to see some type of health care reform implemented, most voters opposed the plan proposed by the president and congressional Democrats . Just 37% of voters now believe it is even somewhat likely that Congress will agree this year on a smaller, bipartisan health care plan . Sixty-one percent (61%) say Congress should drop health care reform and focus on more immediate ways to improve the economy and create jobs .
Only 14% of all voters believe Congress has passed significant legislation over the past year. Sixty-one percent (61%) now give Congress a poor job performance rating, the highest level in more than three years.