President Barack Obama’s approval ratings – which hover in the 60% range nationwide – are below 50% percent in the South, according to a recent regional poll conducted by Winthrop University and S.C. Educational Television (ETV).
Obama’s job approval rating among Southerners currently stands at 48.8%, with 37.8% disapproving and 12.6% unsure.
Meanwhile, Congressional approval ratings are at 24.6%, with 62.6% disapproving and 11.6% unsure.
The poll also asked for Southern voters’ thoughts on S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford as a possible 2012 presidential candidate.
Over two-thirds of respondents (67.4%) said they didn’t have enough information, while 15.6% viewed Sanford favorably and 2.7% viewed him unfavorably.
Among possible 2012 GOP presidential candidates, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney were by far the most well-known.
The poll surveyed registered voters in eleven Southern states – Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, Arkansas, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Tennessee and South Carolina. It was conducted between May 1 and May 17.
WEB EXTRA
By roofus May 22, 2009 at 6:21 pm
Now, now, how many of Obama’s Cabinet are from southern states?
‘Nuff said.
By bsmith May 22, 2009 at 9:54 pm
Hell, at least it’s higher that Mark Sanfords’.
By tammy May 23, 2009 at 12:19 am
The bright side of this poll is that no one in the US cares what anyone in the southern states think.
By liz May 23, 2009 at 8:02 am
It’s the rule of law , stupid. When someone restores the rule of law, they’ll get the poll numbers.
Until then, whatever~
By FWFIV May 23, 2009 at 1:24 pm
With the exception of North Carolina, didn’t Obama lose most of the southern states in the presidential election. It would be more informative to compare current approval ratings with the election results in those states. I think you would find the equal or greater support for Obama since the election.
That should be the real story.
By Dave Farley May 23, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Well No wonder these poll numbers are this way. Of course Mark Sandford is their candidate of choice. When you reject stimulus money while your education, and infant mortality rates are not good, no wonder you dissaprove of a great president trying to do his job. The South gave us George W. Bush a war criminal; the south, allowed lynching to be legal until about 50 years ago, and while we have more dangerous criminals on our street than ever before a local prosecutor decided to order a arrest for Michael Phelps for smoking Marjuana. Legalizing Marjuana in your states would create lots of jobs, just like bootlegging did.
C’Mon,,,give up your old attitudes and become part of the 21st century.
By Jon Dekkers May 23, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Obama’s ratings will drop and drop and drop. The reason is most Americans are not on the govt dole. When they get taxed and taxed and taxed, and their grandchildrens grandchildren are going to have to pay for this man’s idiocy, then and only then will America as a whole wake up to the fact that Mr. Cool screwed them and their descendents.
By Susan Langdon May 24, 2009 at 12:00 am
Is this really a surprise? Southern whites who make up most of the Southern region electorate, are generally further to the right than the other regions. That’s why the increasingly conservative and ideologically pure Republican party has become what is essentially a Southern party.
This poll would be newsworthy only if Obama had Southern region approval ratings that were above fifty percent.
I’m surprised that his approval ratings are as high as they are in the South when you consider the fact that most people in these parts feel that Fox News is too far to the left.
By tammy May 24, 2009 at 1:19 am
Yes. And the Bush administration will carry no blame for any of it. Mr. Cool..all by himself screwed this country up. Republicans were merely angels straight from heaven spreading God’s joy when they ran our deficit up.
By fitsnews May 24, 2009 at 8:03 am
tammy,
on this we agree. Bush sucks. His refusal to take a stand against the fiscal irresponsibility of his fellow Republicans is what ushered in the age of Obama.
obviously, where we disagree is whether the “age of O” is a good thing.
-FITS
By Patrick Hannon May 24, 2009 at 8:19 am
Obama has ruined this country every issue he has worked on is a disaster from the stimulus that him and Democrats never read did not do anything but put us in more debt as the jobless rate climbs and the environment that that we spend tons of money on while countries do not how is this one piece of land going to save the earth and fuel prices are climbing again because him and the democrats wont drill here his carbon tax will cost us big time as he taxes energy and manufacturing that will get past down to us in higher prices and health care you no that’s going to be higher taxes everything he wants to do will cost us remember fellow Americans government has no “money” all this crap they come up with comes out of our pockets and I live in a blue state we are taxed to death all the blue states are broke we pay the highest taxes in the nation I no the democrats say we want higher taxes and big government they feel that way because they don’t pay them Rangel,Geithner,and Daschle just to name a few and the media covers up everything they are leftist so don’t rely on them for information and the truth just use your own common sense to figure out whats going on so to sum it up we are going to be broke and have to work the rest of our lives no retirement to pay for all of his crazy projects and all the people who sit home and don’t pay taxes this is change we needed! also he has weakened this country him and his leftist counterparts will get innocent people killed again with there pre 9-11 mentality God help us all.
By Crooner May 24, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Somebody’s off his meds.
By Silence Dogood May 24, 2009 at 4:53 pm
“President Barack Obama’s approval ratings – which hover in the 60% range nationwide – are below 50% percent in the South” – he didn’t win a single southern state save N.C. and Va by very thin margins. This is and EXTREMELY uninformative headline. The election was only 6-7 months ago and the man has only bee in office for less than 4 months when this survey was done. Hell, his approval may have even gone up in some of these areas for all we know. Hopefully, instead of just collecting data next time, they will actually try to obtains some real information from the study. For instance, here is a cool question “was your opinion of President Obama positive or negative before he took office” and then maybe something REALLY wild like, “Has your (positive/negative) opinion of the President increased or decreased since he has been in office?”
By The Truth May 24, 2009 at 11:27 pm
God help us all from Patrick’s completely incomprehensible, ridiculously long run on sentence. It appears you are utterly lacking in even the tiniest bit of common sense or understanding of the issues facing our country, but hey don’t let that stop your verbal masturbation over issues you obviously have no knowledge or comprehension of beyond what you hear on Hannity or Limbaugh.
Please sir, for everyone’s sake, before you post again please try something new and read a book or at the very least take a rudimentary, second grade level English class. Perhaps my 8 yr old nephew could assist you on your road to literacy?
By yawn May 31, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Obama won North Carolina, Virginia, and Florida.
Obama is below 50% in the region of the country he did the worst in. This is not news.