Thaindian News

Washington, Jan 19 (IANS) As Barack Obama nears the one one-year point of his presidency Wednesday he has won the approval of about half the American people, according to two new polls.
The President “gets middling marks from most Americans but credit for governing in difficult times,” USA Today reported under the headline “In Poll, Obama Gets Unexceptional Marks,”

The USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows “Obama with 50 percent or higher approval for handling foreign affairs and terrorism, but 50 percent or more disapproval on health care and the economy.

On handling the situation in Afghanistan there is an almost even divide: 48 percent approve-47 percent disapprove.”

USA Today also noted that “the president’s approval ratings have plummeted to 50 percent, down from 64 percent shortly after he took office.”

According to Gallup the President “will round out his first year in office with an average 57 percent approval rating,” while “interestingly enough…would place” him “nearly last in a ranking of former presidents’ first-year job approval averages, pollsters noted.”

Meanwhile, according to a new CBS News poll “Obama completes his first year in office with his job approval rating rising in the past week to 50 percent now” Reporting on the poll, the CBS Evening News noted that “of modern presidents, only Ronald Reagan had a lower rating on his first anniversary.”

USA Today said its analysis of polling data has sorted Americans into five groups of like-minded people in attitudes toward the president. They range from those with positive views of Obama and the economy’s direction- dubbed ‘Sunny side up’-all the way to those with the bleakest views of him and the country’s future.”