Confidence in Obama slips more, poll shows

Wave of optimism that swept president into office turns more pessimistic

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

President Barack Obama walks across the tarmac at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, Tuesday, Nov. 10, prior to boarding Air Force One for a trip to Fort Hood, Texas to meet with families of the those wounded and killed in last week's shooting.

By LIZ SIDOTI

AP National Political Writer

updated 1 hour, 45 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The euphoria of 2008 is over: America is in a funk.

Elected last November on a wave of optimism, President Barack Obama now finds himself governing an increasingly pessimistic country in recession while muscling through Congress a health care reform overhaul and weighing whether to commit more troops to the 8-year-old Afghanistan war.

The latest Associated Press-GfK poll shows that Americans grew slightly more dispirited on a range of matters over the past month, continuing slippage that has occurred since Obama took office as the year began.

They were more pessimistic about the direction of the country. They disapproved of Obama's handling of the economy a bit more than before. And, perhaps most striking for this novice commander in chief, more people have lost confidence in Obama on Iraq and Afghanistan over the last month.

Ambitious agenda
All that is troubling for a president trying to accomplish an ambitious agenda at home while fighting wars abroad, as well as for a Democratic Party heading into a critical election year in which it will look to stave off losses a new president typically experiences in his first midterms. A third of the Senate, all of the House and most governors' offices will be on the ballot.

The findings underscore just how quickly the political environment can change, a lesson in cautiousness for out-of-power Republicans salivating at the murky state of the electorate and buzzing with energy after booting Democrats from rule in Virginia and New Jersey governors' races last week.

It was just over a year ago that Obama won the White House in an electoral landslide and Democrats padded their congressional majorities. The country was riding high with optimism by just about all measures when Obama took office in January.

"Hope" and "change" were en vogue back then. But "change" didn't happen overnight, as the rhetoric of campaigning crashed headlong into the realities of governing. And "hope" slipped in a country that always has clung to it.

Approval at 54 percent
Now, Obama's approval rating stands at 54 percent, roughly the same as in October but very different from what it was in January just before he took office, 74 percent. And some 56 percent of people say the country is heading in the wrong direction, an uptick from 51 percent last month and 49 percent in Obama's first month as president.

The economy is by far the most important issue on the minds of Americans given a crushing recession that's erased jobs. Unemployment hit 10.2 percent last month even though the administration has promoted glimmers of improvement and most economists say the recession is over.

Those jobless figures help explain why as many people said the economy got worse in the past month as said it got better — and it's not many people who thought it got better, just 22 percent. Most say the economy stayed the same, and most don't approve of how Obama is handling it — just 46 percent approve compared with 50 percent last month.

The country also has grown even more lukewarm on Obama and the wars as he tries to wind down the one in Iraq and considers ramping up the one in Afghanistan.

Compared with October, 45 percent of people now disapprove of Obama's handling of Iraq, up from 37 percent, while 48 percent now disapprove of his handling of Afghanistan, up from 41 percent; a majority of people in the country opposes both wars. And more than half — 54 percent — now oppose sending more troops to Afghanistan, an increase from 50 percent last month.

Obama in tough spot
All that puts Obama in a tough spot as he nears a decision on whether to add tens of thousands more forces to Afghanistan. His top general there is seeking 40,000 more.