Barack Obama’s approval ratings hit new low

Amid rising gas prices, President Barack Obama’s Obama approval rating has plunged to 41 per cent in a new poll putting a question mark on his re-election prospects in November, despite improving employment.

After several months in which signs of economic recovery appeared to give Obama a boost, a New York Times/CBS News survey Monday saw Obama’s rating plunging down nine percent from the 50 percent threshold recorded just a month ago.

Forty-seven percent of those asked disapproved of the job Obama was doing.

However, Obama fared better against potential Republican presidential candidates, beating the party’s front runner former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney by 47 percent to 44 percent and former Republican senator Rick Santorum by 48 percent to 44 percent.

Earlier, a Washington Post/ABC News poll also registered a drop in Obama’s approval rating, though the decrease was not quite so severe.

Only 46 per cent of those asked approved of the way Obama is handling his job and 50 per cent disapproved as he took a hit from rising gas prices.

The situation was a reversal from early February when 50 per cent approved of the president’s performance and 46 per cent disapproved.

Two-thirds of those asked said they disapproved with the way Obama was handling rising gas prices which now average nearly four dollars a gallon.

Just one month ago, Obama reached a critical benchmark by winning approval from 50 percent of Times/CBS News poll respondents, his re-election prospects lifting along with confidence that the nation was finally emerging from the aftermath of the Great Recession.

(IANS)