The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Thursday shows only 25 percent of the nation’s voters strongly approve of the way President Barack Obama is performing as the nation’s leader. Thirty-five percent strongly disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of minus seven.
Overall, 49 percent of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the president’s performance; 50 percent disapprove.
The Presidential Approval Index is calculated by subtracting the number who strongly disapprove from the number who strongly approve.
In a separate Rasmussen national telephone survey, taken the week ending May 15, only 29 percent of likely U.S. voters say the country is heading in the right direction.
The new finding is up eight points from three weeks ago, which marked the lowest measure of confidence to date since Obama assumed office in late January 2009. The number saying the country is headed in the right direction has ranged from a low of 21 percent to a high of 35 percent since Obama’s inauguration.
Sixty-four percent of voters now say the country is heading down the wrong track. Since January 2009, pessimism about the country’s direction has ranged from 57 percent to 72 percent, according to Rasmussen.
© 2013 Newsmax. All rights reserved.