WashPost Poll: 53 Percent of Likely Voters Don't Like Obama

On the eve of the midterm elections, President Barack Obama's favorability rating has dropped to an all-time low, a new poll has found.

The Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted Oct. 23-26 of 1,204 adults found that the just 44 percent of Americans have a favorable impression of the president. Among likely voters, 53 percent view Obama unfavorably, compared to 43 percent who view him favorably.

"Voters will not see 'Barack Obama' on the ballot on Tuesday, and the president might count himself lucky," the Post said.

Notably, perhaps to the detriment of Democrats, those with strongly held views of Obama are most likely to vote on Tuesday. An estimated three-quarters of those who have strong opinions about the president say they are certain to vote, compared to half of those who have "somewhat" favorable or unfavorable views of the president.

The survey also looked at ratings for the president according to personal attributes.

Forty-five percent of those surveyed said they think he is a good manager, 46 percent say they believe he is a strong leader, and 46 percent also say he "understands the problems of people like you."

On crisis management, almost half of voters, or 49 percent, believe the president can be trusted in a crisis, though 47 percent believe he cannot.

"Obama's reputation has stayed strong among some groups who overwhelmingly supported his reelection, but it has weakened among others," the Post said.

Specifically, 78 percent of Democrats have a favorable view of Obama, including 85 percent of liberal Democrats and 85 percent of black voters.

His favorability among Hispanics has dropped, however. In the 2012 election, 71 percent of Hispanics gave him a positive rating compared to just 50 percent today.

Republicans are the most negative about the president. Obama has a negative image of 84 percent among Republicans, while a majority of independents also view him unfavorably, by 55 percent compared to 38 percent, the poll found.

A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released last month showed that Obama's job approval rating had also hit an all-time low, with 54 percent of Americans saying they disapprove of the job he is doing.

Obama's negative approval ratings are casting a shadow over Democrats going into Tuesday's elections, NPR reported.
 
And according to the National Journal, the "biggest strategic mistake" Democrats made this cycle was that they didn't do enough to distance themselves from the unpopular president.

"Given the president's rock-bottom approval numbers in the many Republican-friendly Senate states that Democrats needed to win — as well as the reality of a worsening political environment for the party as early as last winter — that distance was a downright necessity. But a host of Senate candidates failed to create it, and the party is likely to pay the price in Senate seats," the Journal said.

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