Presidential approval ratings dip to all-time low as Obama moves to sell health care

President Obama’s approval ratings have hit an all-time low, indicating that the White House faces a tough job as it tries to gather support this week for both a jobs bill and a revised health-care bill.

A new poll from Iowa-based Selzer and Company shows that since November, Obama’s approval rating among Iowa independents dropped sharply from 48 to 38 percent — reaching its lowest level yet.

Similarly, Rasmussen Reports’ latest release of its nightly automated tracking poll yesterday showed that the number of people who “strongly approve” of the president’s performance reached an all-time low of 22 percent, down from a high of 45 at the beginning of his presidency.  At the same time 41 percent “strongly disapprove” of his performance, with remaining voters falling in between.

“Overall the president’s numbers have been between the mid and upper 40s since around Thanksgiving — they tend to get a little lower when health care becomes the primary focus, as it is now,” said Scott Rasmussen, founder of Rasmussen Reports. “The health-care debate has overall captured a lot of people’s frustration … I think people are concerned that the president would like the government to assume an even greater role in the economy than now, and it’s firing up voters.”

Rasmussen noted a shift among independents as well.

“Independent voters voted against the party in power in ’04 and ’08, and then in ’09 we saw it again in New Jersey and Virginia and now Massachusetts,” Rasmussen said. He pointed out that both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were elected with their majorities in Congress and both subsequently lost them by the end of their terms. “The frustration voters are feeling now is a continuation of the frustration they felt in the early 1990s. I don’t think it’s unique to Iowa — independents are always less supportive of the party in power — that’s the way it is in this era.”

The new Iowa poll focused how independents feel about Obama.

“This is quite a precipitous drop, there is a loss of confidence — a sense among people that they drank the Kool-Aid, and now there’s a real sense of disappointment,” said Ann Selzer, president of Selzer and Company, which conducted the latest study of Iowa independents.