4/8: Obama Approval Rating at 50%, but Dissatisfaction with D.C. Looms

McClatchy/Marist National Poll

Despite increasingly improved perceptions about President Barack Obama’s job performance, registered voters nationally continue to express displeasure with how Congress is doing its job.  In fact, the proportion of voters who disapprove of how the Republicans are performing is at its highest point in more than two years.  Congressional Democrats fare somewhat better, but still, just a little more than one in three members of the national electorate approves of their job performance.  To compound matters, there is growing pessimism about the direction of the nation.  In fact, the proportion of U.S. residents who think the nation is moving in the wrong direction is at its highest point in more than 4 years.

“With scores like this it’s not surprising that Washington is a target of ridicule on the 2016 campaign trail,” says Dr. Lee M. Miringoff, Director of The Marist College Institute for Public Opinion.

President Obama’s job approval rating has been inching upward since December of 2014 and currently stands at 50% among registered voters nationally.  46% disapprove of how he is doing his job.  When last reported in November, the electorate divided.  48% said they approved of the president’s job performance, and 48% did not.

Looking at the Republicans in Congress, 21% of registered voters approve of how they are doing their job.  73% disapprove.  While these ratings are little changed from the fall, the proportion of voters who disapprove of how the congressional GOP is doing its job is at its highest point in more than two years.  When it comes to the congressional Democrats, 36% approve of their job performance, but nearly six in ten, 59%, do not.  In November, those proportions were 38% and 55%, respectively.

68% of Americans think the nation is off course.  This is the largest proportion of residents who believe the country is moving in the wrong direction since November 2011.  At that time, 70% of Americans expressed dissatisfaction with the country’s trajectory.  When this question was last reported in the fall, 59% thought the country was moving in the wrong direction while 36% said it was moving in the right one.

Complete April 8, 2016 McClatchy-Marist Poll of the United States

Marist Poll Methodology

Nature of the Sample