President Obama's job approval ratings are below 50 percent or in negative territory in five of the seven states we are updating in our round-up of state polls (one of the new polls, for Texas, did not test job approval ratings, but instead asked about the impact of Obama's economic stimulus package and his health care proposal). The other updated states are Arizona, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina and Wisconsin.
Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling, which did some of the new surveys cited here, observes: "Obama generally seems to be having problems in the Midwest. A Des Moines Register poll (Nov. 8-11) showed Obama's approval rating there dropping to 49%. A Quinnipiac poll a few weeks ago in Ohio showed 50% of voters disapproving of him there to just 45% approval. A recent Rasmussen survey in Minnesota found him only slightly in positive territory, 51/48. He won all three of those states last year by margins ranging from 4 points in Ohio to 10 points in Iowa and Minnesota." |