Majority of voters approve of job performance
Raleigh, N.C. – President Barack Obama’s action in pushing through the economic stimulus package has helped more North Carolina voters form an opinion on the early days of his Presidency according to a new poll released today by the Civitas Institute. Comparing unsure voters’ opinions of the last two months on Obama’s job performance to now, less than one in five have formulated no opinion of his executive leadership. In January, over one-third of voters had yet to form an opinion.
According to the live caller poll of 600 voters, 65 percent approved of President Obama’s performance in office so far while only 16 percent disapproved. And 19 percent said they were not sure. Obama’s approval rating increased five points over a similar poll taken in January. However, the number of voters disapproving of his job as President increased from six percent to 16 percent.
“Obama’s approval rating in North Carolina continues to be very high through his first month in office,” said Francis De Luca, executive director of the Civitas Institute. “It will be interesting to see if this trend continues as the honeymoon period passes.”
The President’s approval rating is buoyed by strong support among Democrats and unaffiliated voters. Among Democrats, his approval rating is: 83 percent approve, six percent disapprove (83 to 6). For unaffiliated voters, it is 67 to 11.
“As time passes and the President continues to make decisions, more people will be affected. In turn, his approval rating will begin to reflect his decision making and not being able to please all the people all of the time,” said De Luca.
Full text of questions:
“Do you approve or disapprove of the job Barack Obama is doing as President?”
Strongly Approve- 36%
Somewhat Approve- 29%
Somewhat Disapprove- 5%
Strongly Disapprove- 11%
Not Sure- 19%
January results
Strongly Approve- 33%
Somewhat Approve- 27%
Somewhat Disapprove- 3%
Strongly Disapprove- 3%
Not Sure- 34%
Click here for full results and crosstabs.
The Civitas Poll is the only monthly live-caller poll of critical issues and policies facing North Carolina.
The study of 600 registered voters was conducted Feb.16 to 19, 2009. All respondents were part of a fully representative sample of registered voters in North Carolina. For purposes of this study, voters we interviewed had to have voted in either the 2004, 2006 or 2008 general elections or were newly registered voters since 2008.
The confidence interval associated with a sample of this size is such that: 95 percent of the time, results from 600 interviews (registered voters) will be within +-4% of the “True Values.” True Values refer to the results obtained if it were possible to interview every person in North Carolina who had voted in either the 2004, 2006 or 2008 general elections or were newly registered voters since 2008.
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If you would like more information regarding this topic or to schedule an interview with Chris Hayes, please contact Gabe Dellinger at 919.747.8065 or Gabe.Dellinger@nccivitas.org.
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