Obama approval hits 15-month high
President Barack Obama’s job approval hit a 15-month high during the Democratic National Convention this week, according to a Gallup Poll.
The poll, conducted Sept. 4-6 and released today, found that 52 percent of Americans approve of the president’s job performance, up three percentage points from the previous survey, conducted Sept. 3-5. In the latest poll, 43 percent disapproved of the job Obama is doing, down from 45 percent.
Obama’s job approval hasn’t topped 50 percent in the Gallup survey since a poll conducted June 21-23. The latest approval numbers are the president’s highest since a survey conducted May 29-June 1, 2011, in which Obama registered a 53 percent approval rating.
The bump in Obama’s rating coincides with his party’s nominating convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, this week. Obama accepted the Democratic presidential nomination in a speech last night before heading to a campaign event today in New Hampshire where he discussed an unexpected slowdown in August job growth that could temper his momentum from the convention.
The poll released today has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points and is based on telephone interviews with about 1,500 adults.
The Labor Department reported today that the economy added 96,000 jobs in August, down from a revised gain of 141,000 in July. While the unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent from 8.3 percent in July, that resulted from more people giving up looking for work.
“We know it’s not good enough,” Obama said today during the event in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. “We need to create jobs faster.”