The percentage of Americans approving of President Barack Obama’s handling of foreign policy issues has dropped to the lowest level of his presidency as he faces multiple overseas challenges, including in Iraq,according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.
Additionally, the public is evenly split on whether Obama is a competent manager of the federal bureaucracy. And a majority of respondents – 54 percent – believe the term-limited president is no longer able to lead the country.
“This is a bad poll for President Obama, and not a good poll for anybody else,” said Republican pollster Bill McInturff, who conducted the survey with Democrats Peter Hart and Fred Yang.
“Whether it’s [Vladimir] Putin, Ukraine, the VA hospitals, Bowe Bergdahl, the events have controlled Obama, rather than Obama having controlled the events,” Hart adds. “He may be winning the issues debate, but he’s losing the political debate, because they don’t see him as a leader.”
More oppose Bergdahl prisoner swap than support it
The poll was crafted before the instability in Iraq grabbed headlines, so it doesn’t contain questions on that subject. It also was conducted before the United States arrested a suspect in the 2012 attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya.
But it shows an American public that has grown dissatisfied with President Obama on foreign policy and national security decisions.
Just 37 percent approve of his handling of foreign policy, which is an all-time low in the survey, while 57 percent disapprove, an all-time high.
Source: NBC News | MARK MURRAY
About that Wall Street Journal poll: Is the public saying Obama’s presidency is over?
President Obama‘s approval rating has dropped to 41 percent, a majority of Americans disapprove of his handling of foreign policy issues, he has lost support from the Hispanic community and Americans actually think his administration is less competent than the Bush White House post-Hurricane Katrina, according to a new survey from the Wall Street Journal and NBC News.
In short, the poll is nothing but bad news for the president.
The survey would appear to be so bad, in fact, that NBC News’ Chuck Todd said Tuesday that the poll basically means the public has declared the Obama presidency to be over.
“This poll is a disaster for the president,” Todd said. “You look at the presidency here: Lowest job rating, tied for the lowest; lowest on foreign policy. His administration is seen as less competent than the Bush administration, post-Katrina.”
Source: Washington Examiner | T. BECKET ADAMS
