Poll: Most Georgians approve of Obama

According to a new Gallup poll, a slight majority of Georgians approve of President Obama’s job performance. By a margin of 48 to 44 percent, Georgians favor the president. The approval rating is actually one point higher than the percentage of the vote that Obama won in Georgia in 2008.

While not in the top ten Obama-approving states, at number twenty Georgia ranks higher than many of the swing states from the 2008 election. This fact is somewhat surprising considering the size of the Republican victory in Georgia in 2010.

Florida falls just after Georgia with a 47-45 approval margin. North Carolina is next with a 46-46 split. Two other swing states, Ohio and Indiana, both disapprove of President Obama. Ohio’s margin is 45-47 percent, while Indiana’s is 42-50 percent. All four states were won by President Obama in 2008.

Missouri and Montana, two swing states won by John McCain in 2008, now strongly disapprove of President Obama. Missouri disapproves by 42-50 percent. Montana is one of the most unfavorable states to Obama. Thirty-six percent of Montanans approve of the president, while 55 percent disapprove.

President Obama’s national approval rating is 42 percent according to Gallup, which means that his approval in Georgia is actually higher than the national average. President Obama’s strongest support is in the northeastern states as well as Illinois, Delaware, Maryland, and Hawaii. His strongest opposition is in the South and Midwest.

In what must be seen as a disturbing sign for the Obama re-election campaign, the president’s approval rating was higher than fifty percent in only sixteen states and the District of Columbia. This means that even before the unpopular debt ceiling compromise, Standard and Poor’s downgrade of the U.S. credit rating, and this week’s turmoil in the financial markets President Obama faced an uphill battle in next year’s presidential campaign. The state polls were taken from January through June 2011 so the president’s approval rating could be much worse than the polls reflect given the upheaval of the past few weeks.

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