Obama reaches new low on economy, high on Iraq in new poll

A poll released Friday found President Obama's approval rating on the economy dipping to a new low, while the public handed him his highest marks on the Iraq war in 18 months.

A CNN/Opinion Research survey showed the public disapproves of the way the president has handled the economy, 59-40 percent. But on Iraq, 57 percent approves of his handling of the war, opposed to 41 percent who disapprove.

Obama's approval rating on the economy has steadily slipped since last September, amid high unemployment and mixed signs the economy is emerging from its deep recession.

Other polls show the public rates the economy as the No. 1 issue heading into the November midterm elections, when Democrats are expected to lose seats in Congress and maybe even their control of the House.

Jobs numbers released Friday showed the jobless rate ticked up from 9.5 to 9.6 percent, while the economy added 67,000 private-sector jobs but lost 54,000 overall.

The president spoke Friday morning in the Rose Garden, insisting his administration's economic policies are helping to bring the economy out of the recession, but Republicans have hammered away at Obama and the Democrats, arguing their plans have not worked.

Only 32 percent of independents believe Obama is handling the economy well compared to 66 percent who don't. Democrats think is he performing well on the issue, 72-25, while Republicans believe the opposite: 93 percent say he is doing poorly, as opposed to 7 percent who say he is doing well.

The poll paints a different picture of his handling of the Iraq war, which the poll termed "the situation in Iraq."

Obama received an eight-point jump from July and earned his highest rating since March 2009, two months after he took office. In that poll, 63 percent approved of his handling of Iraq.

The boost came after Obama announced a major drawdown of troop levels in Iraq this week, and said U.S. military forces there would transition from a combat to an advisory and training role.

Respondents to the CNN/Opinion Research poll have been overwhelmingly opposed to the Iraq war for some time, and a 40 percent plurality said combat troops should have been withdrawn sooner.

But the vast majority, 80 percent, believe the war is still not over, opposed to only 20 percent who think it is.

Half of the independents surveyed approve of his handling of the war, against 46 percent who oppose it. Republicans rate Obama higher on the war than the economy, with 31 percent approving of his handling of the war and 68 percent disapproving. Democrats rate him higher on Iraq than on the economy as well, with 83 percent saying they approve and 16 percent saying they do not.

The poll surveyed 1,024 adults nationally between Sept. 1-2 and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

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