More than half of Americans disapprove of President Barack Obama, according to the new results of a CNN/ORC poll released Tuesday.
The dismal data showed that 55 percent of Americans disapprove of Obama’s job performance and only 48 percent still believe he is a strong leader. The job performance numbers mark a new low for Obama, who has seen public opinion of him steadily decrease amid increasing economic woes.
Overall U.S. employment has held at a steady 9.1 percent while Black unemployment has risen steadily, with the latest figures landing at 16.7 percent. In response, Obama unveiled a $400 billion jobs plan that aims to boost job creation and tackle other major issues surrounding the country’s unemployment crisis.
On major issues such as the economy and unemployment, only 36 percent approve of his efforts in handling the economy and 39 percent approve of his approach toward unemployment. Thirty-seven percent feel that he has made the economy worse. Overall, six in 10 respondents said that the president has fallen short of their expectations.

Surprisingly, in contrast to the disapproval statistics, the poll showed that Americans admired Obama personally.  Eight out of ten people find Obama to be “likeable” and a majority agreed that he is compassionate, hard-working, and has a vision for the country's future. Three out of four say Obama fights for his beliefs.
There is hope, however, that Obama’s new jobs plan may boost public confidence in his ability to lead the country. According to the poll, Americans are overwhelmingly optimistic about the jobs bill despite knowing the specifics of the proposal and overall, the public trusts Obama on economic matters more than Republicans in Congress. Only 15 percent of Americans approve of Congress’ job performance.
 
The poll was conducted for CNN by ORC International and utilized data from 1,038 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

(Photo: AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)