It took a while, but President Obama’s poll numbers are now dropping after the recent series of scandals. Last week, a Fox News poll found a majority of those it surveyed believe President Obama let election-year politics make his decision not to send help to the Americans under attack at the consulate in Benghazi. Now a new CNN poll finds his approval rating has fallen to 45 percent, the lowest since late 2011:
The poll indicates that for the first time in Obama’s presidency, half of the public says they don’t believe he is honest and trustworthy. And Americans are split on the controversial National Security Agency anti-terrorism program to record metadata on U.S. phone calls, but they support the NSA program that targets records of Internet usage by people in other countries. That doesn’t mean they necessarily like what is going on: Just over six in 10 believe that government is so large and powerful that it threatens the rights and freedoms of ordinary Americans.
“The drop in Obama’s support is fueled by a dramatic 17-point decline over the past month among people under 30, who, along with black Americans, had been the most loyal part of the Obama coalition,” CNN polling director Keating Holland said. He also notes that the president’s approval rating among independent voters had plunged, too, dropping ten points in just one month to 37 percent.