Following President Bush’s last State of the Union address, a new FOX News poll finds that about one out of every three Americans approve of his overall job performance. Job approval for the 110th Congress has hit an all-time low.
In this most recent FOX News poll 33 percent of registered voters say they approve of the president’s job performance, 60 percent disapprove. This comes as the president sets out on his last year in office vowing to curb earmarks by executive order and hailing the success of the troop surge in Iraq.
Congressional job approval remains dismal. About one of five voters (22 percent) say they approve of the job Congress is doing with 66 percent disapproving. This is the lowest job approval rating ever recorded in a FOX News poll for this Congress. The previous low was in early October 2007, when 24 percent of the public approved. The highest approval rating to date for the current Democratically-controlled Congress was in April of 2007 when 35 percent said they approved.
Click here for full poll results. (pdf)
Opinion Dynamics Corp. conducted the national telephone poll of 900 registered voters for FOX News from January 30 to January 31. The poll has a 3-point margin of error.
As expected, Bush’s job rating reflects a sharp partisan divide. Democrats have steadily pulled away from the Commander in Chief, while a majority of Republicans still approves. Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of Republicans approve of the job that Bush is doing while 11 percent of Democrats agree. Thirty percent of independents think Bush is doing well in Washington.
There is also a slight gender divide among those approving of the president’s performance. Men are 6 points more likely than women to think Bush is earning his salary.
2007 — Highs and Lows
It was a tough year for President Bush in 2007. Looking back the president received the lowest average job approval rating in all seven years of his presidency. On average only 35 percent of Americans said they approved of the job he was doing in the White House. The average disapproval of Bush’s job was 57 percent in 2007. In 2006, Bush’s average job rating was 39 percent approval with 53 percent disapproving.
The June 2007 FOX New poll recorded the single lowest approval ever for the president with 31 percent of Americans saying they approved.
While approval among Republicans has never dropped below 61 percent (June 2007), Democrats’ job approval for the president has reached nearly non-existent levels. In June 2007, only 6% of Democrats said they approved.
Bush’s highest approval ratings came in the months following the 9/11 terrorists attacks, when in November fully 88 percent of Americans said they approved of the job he was doing. Both Republicans and Democrats, men and women overwhelming said they approved of the job Bush was doing at that time.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox