WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's job approval rating has
dropped below 50 percent in a second major poll in an indication he is
suffering from the long healthcare debate and weakness in the economy,
Gallup said on Friday.

Gallup said 49 percent of Americans approved of Obama's job performance. A
survey by Quinnipiac University on Wednesday had a similar finding, putting
him at 48 percent support.

It was the first time he had fallen below majority support in those two
polls. He had been polling in the low 50s for months after taking office in
January with an approval rating just under 70 percent.

Gallup said Obama's drop in its daily tracking poll likely resulted from the
contentious debate over healthcare as well as the poor state of the U.S.
economy, with millions of Americans out of work.

"Americans are also concerned about the Obama administration's reliance on
government spending to solve the nation's problems and the growing federal
budget deficit," Gallup said in an analysis of its poll, which surveyed
1,533 people from Tuesday to Thursday. The margin of error was 4 points.

Democrat Obama became the fourth-fastest U.S. president since World War Two
to drop below majority support in the Gallup poll, following Republican
Gerald Ford, Democrat Bill Clinton and Republican Ronald Reagan.

Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling
Institute, said that although Obama's job approval was below 50 percent for
the first time nationally, it was not statistically different from his 50
percent approval rating in October.

"Nevertheless, in politics symbols matter and this is not a good symbol for
the White House," said Brown. "Moreover, the percentage who approve of the
way he is handling the economy has dropped from a split 47-46 percent
approval in October to 52-43 percent disapproval today."



Read it and weep, bitches.