The poll indicates Americans view Congress worse than Obama. Poll: Troubling numbers for SOTU

As President Barack Obama prepares to deliver his annual State of the Union address Tuesday night, new polls show him facing low numbers, with less than one-third of Americans thinking the country is in a better place today than when he took office.

Sixty-eight percent say the country is in the same place or worse off than when Obama became president in 2009, compared with 31 percent who say it’s better off, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll out Tuesday. Thirty-nine percent said it was worse off.


Similarly, 63 percent said the country was on the wrong track, compared with just 28 percent who believe the nation is going in the right direction.

Obama’s approval rating also remains essentially tied with the record low approval in NBC’s polling that he registered in October, with voters disapproving of the job he’s doing 51 percent to 43 percent. His low point was a 51 percent to 42 percent disapproval.

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The poll has some good news for Obama ahead of his speech to Congress: Americans view Congress worse than him and believe he is working better with legislators than they are working with him.

Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing 81 percent to 13 percent, near its record low from July of 83 percent to 12 percent.

As for whether Obama is too inflexible with Republicans in Congress, 41 percent think he is striking the right balance, 13 percent think he’s too quick to give in and 39 percent believe he is too inflexible.

On the other hand, 51 percent of Americans think Republicans in Congress are too inflexible with the president, with 17 percent saying they are too quick to give in and 25 percent saying they strike the right balance.

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The numbers were echoed in another poll released Tuesday. Left-leaning Public Policy Polling found Obama’s approval rating at 41 percent, tying his all-time low in their polls and the same as last month.

Fifty-three percent disapproved of the job Obama is doing.

Congress also got dismal marks, with voters approving of the job the legislature was doing 85 percent to 6 percent. Voters disapproved slightly more of Republicans, 68 percent to 20 percent, than Democrats, 59 percent to 32 percent.

Conducting a media tour ahead of the president’s speech, the White House was dismissive of the numbers. White House chief of staff Denis McDonough said neither he nor the president was concerned with polling.

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“I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about that. Here’s what I spend a lot of time worrying about: making sure the American people see publicly what I see privately every day, which is a president who’s focused very much on opportunity, action and optimism,” McDonough said on NBC’s “Today” show Tuesday. “Notwithstanding what the polls say and notwithstanding what Congress does. … The president of the United States doesn’t come down to work every day or go home up to the residence every night worried about poll numbers. What he worries about is making sure there’s opportunity for every American.”

Hart Research Associates surveyed 800 adults from Jan. 22 to 25 for the NBC/WSJ poll, which has an error margin of plus or minus 3.46 percentage points. PPP surveyed 845 registered voters from Jan. 23 to 26 for its poll, which has an error margin of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.