Poll: Concern Over Deficit, Economic Intervention Threatens Obama Popularity

Americans are increasingly concerned about rising budget deficits and government intervention in the economy under President Obama, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll suggests.

A majority of the American people surveyed in the poll released Thursday say the president and Congress should focus more on keeping the deficit down than working to boost the economy.

About seven out of every 10 people questioned said they had concerns about the government's increasing role in the economy, such as the ownership stake in General Motors and health care reform plans. More than 50 percent of the respondents also expressed opposition to the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison.

Obama's overall approval rating has also slipped. While still high, his job approval rating has slipped five percentage points to 56 percent since April.

Public skepticism about the economy threatens to eclipse the president's personal popularity and his agenda, said one author of the poll.

"The public is really moving from evaluating him as a charismatic and charming leader to his specific handling of the challenges facing the country," Peter D. Hart, a Democratic pollster who conducts the survey with Republican Bill McInturff, told The Wall Street Journal.

But it's not all gloom and doom for the president -- the public seems more optimistic about the economic recovery compared to a few weeks earlier. There's still support -- at least tentatively -- for Obama's health care reform plan. And half of those surveyed said Obama's Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is qualified; only 13 percent expressed concerns over her qualification.

Conducted from Friday to Monday, the survey had a total of 1008 adults with 3.1 percent margin of error.

Click here to read the poll.