Pew: Obama's Approval Slips

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, a polling group that tries to be neutral but ends up leaning somewhat left, reports some interesting results here. Between June and July, Obama's approval rating among their white respondents dropped from 52% to 48%. His ratings among blacks dropped even more, from 93% to 85%.

On certain policy issues, Obama's approval ratings are much lower, and have dropped substantially since April.

Just less than four-in-ten Americans (38%) now say they approve of Obama’s handling of the economy, down from 52% in June and 60% in April. In total, this rating has dropped 22 points from April to July.

Approval ratings for Obama’s handling of the federal budget deficit show a similar pattern. His performance rating on this issue dropped 18 points since April, going from 50% to 32%.

Approval for Obama’s handling of foreign policy has slipped from 61% in April to 47% – a decline of 14 points.

On the other hand, people say they like the President as a person. As JFK demonstrated, that is a valuable trait for a public figure.