Fox News Poll: 56 Percent Would Give Obama Vote of 'No Confidence'

If Americans could cast a “confidence” vote in the style of European parliaments, President Barack Obama would not fare well. A 56-percent majority would give his administration a vote of “no confidence.”

In addition, there’s more bad news for the White House in a Fox News poll released Thursday. By a wide 68-29 percent margin, voters say they do not see “any signs the nation’s economy has started to turn the corner.”

The 56-percent “no confidence” number includes 30 percent of Democrats and 62 percent of independents. By comparison, 40 percent of voters overall would cast a “vote of confidence” for the administration.

Click here to see the full results of the poll

That’s similar to President Obama’s overall job performance rating. Currently 42 percent of voters approve and 48 percent disapprove. This is the fifth month in a row where more voters have disapproved than approved of Obama. Last month 43 percent approved and 50 percent disapproved.

By a 13 percentage-point margin more voters think Obama’s economic policies have hurt (48 percent) rather than helped (35 percent) the economy.

What about down the road? Forty-four percent think Obama’s economic policies will help in the long run, while 48 percent think they will hurt. Clearly the administration has failed to convince voters that their policies will ultimately pay off, as the current views are little changed from last year, when 45 percent said the policies would eventually help and 44 percent said they would hurt (October 2010).

Still, voters are optimistic about America’s future -- long term. Looking ahead to the next 10 years, a 59-percent majority is optimistic. While that number is unchanged from last year, there has been a decline in intensity.

Consider this: 20 percent of voters are “very” optimistic about the country’s future. That’s down from 29 percent last year, and a drop of almost half of the 37 percent who were “very” optimistic in the months after Obama took office (April 2009).

Meanwhile, 36 percent of voters are pessimistic about America’s future, the highest ever recorded in a Fox News poll since the question was first asked in 1999.

Democrats (67 percent) are more optimistic about the country’s long-term future, than Republicans (56 percent) and independents (49 percent).

Most Disapprove of Congress

Fully 80 percent of voters disapprove of the job Congress is doing. Twelve percent approve. Both of these current ratings remain near record levels. Approval of Congress hit a low of 10 percent in August 2011, and disapproval hit a high of 83 percent in September 2011.

The Fox News poll is based on landline and cell phone interviews with 914 randomly-chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from November 13 to November 15. For the total sample, it has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.