Approval Rating

While official Washington is caught in a debate over when President Obama can present his jobs program to a joint session of Congress, two polls released on Thursday show that the president continues to pay a steep political price for a weak economy. About 65% of those surveyed in a CNN/ORC poll said they disapproved of the president's handling of the economy, while Obama's approval numbers in the latest Quinnipiac University poll fell to their lowest levels, driven by the economic questions.

For many people facing natural disasters and a turbulent economy, this indeed has been the summer of discontent. Perhaps none has felt that malaise more than President Obama, whose approval rating continues to hover at its record low average of 40%, according to the Gallup daily tracking poll released on Tuesday. The last time Obama's average weekly job approval rating was at least a majority, 50%, among all Americans was the week of May 30 to June 5, according to Gallup. Since then, the president's approval rating has steadily evaporated to where in the group's latest computations, only African Americans, Democrats and liberals continue to give Obama majority support.

During recent recesses, members of Congress who returned home to host town hall meetings participated in a phenomenon that changed the national agenda but also subjected them to raucous sessions with constituents venting anger in face-to-face showdowns. This summer, with approval ratings of Congress as low as 13%, they appear to have learned their lesson. Washington lawmakers are using the political version of crowd control, shying away from wide-open forums and choosing alternative appearances to avoid the attacks that dominated the 2009 healthcare town halls or this year's outbursts over Republican proposals to restructure Medicare.

President Obama  is polling neck-and-neck with four Republican presidential candidates, according to a Gallup survey of registered voters. When matched against Obama in a hypothetical election, the four GOP contenders -- Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann - are statistically tied with the incumbent president.  Romney has a slight edge over Obama (48% to 46%), while Perry and Obama are tied at 47%. Obama has a slight edge over Paul (47% to 45%) and a slightly larger edge over Bachmann (48% to 44%)

It is the institution that everyone loves to hate and according to the latest Gallup poll released on Tuesday, there is seemingly no bottom to Americans' disapproval of Congress. According to the poll, a bare 13% of those surveyed approve of Congress, tying the worst record recorded in December 2010. Disapproval of the national lawmakers stood at 84%, a percentage point higher (hence, worse) than last December's. The findings are based on telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,008 adults conducted Aug. 11 to 14. It has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.

Burdened by sagging poll numbers, hamstrung by poor economic news, and trapped in Washington for much of the summer because of the debt ceiling fight, President Obama will seek to reverse his recent fortunes by hitting the open road. Obama  on Monday will embark on a three-state, five-town bus tour deep in the heart of the American Midwest, hoping to tell the public - and potential voters--some small-business success stories and highlight economic development in rural areas. He'll also be looking to rebut criticism that he's not focused on finding solutions to bolster the flat-lining economy.

President Obama's summer woes have dragged his approval rating to an all-time low, sinking below 40% for the first time in Gallup's daily tracking poll. New data posted Sunday shows that 39% of Americans approve of Obama's job performance, while 54% disapprove. Both are the worst numbers of his presidency. Obama's approval rating has hovered in the 40% range for much of 2011, peaking at 53% in the weeks following the death of Osama bin Laden. But Americans' view of his job performance continued to tick downward as the debt-ceiling debate heated up. By the time he signed legislation averting a federal default, he was mired in the low-40% range.

Liberals, the small but often important electoral group, seem to be holding fast in their support for President Obama, according to the latest Gallup poll being circulated by Democrats. In an email to reporters Wednesday, the Democratic National Committee highlighted the poll, buried earlier this week under the crush of reporting about the debt-ceiling crisis. The poll comes amid growing media reports that liberals are becoming disenchanted with Obama, especially after what they see as the president's caving in to Republicans in the debt-limit negotiations.

President Obama says he's too busy to handicap the field of candidates seeking to challenge him in 2012, and that regardless of who eventually wins the GOP nomination, voters will ultimately make their decision based mainly on whether they feel he's earned another four years. A full year and a half before the next presidential inauguration, Obama said he would continue serving if he can assure the American people that "I've been on their side. " "Americans understand that we didn't get into this problem overnight," he told an interviewer from KMBC-TV in Kansas City, one of three interviews the White House granted to local television stations Wednesday.