HIGH POINT, N.C., Nov. 22, 2011 – The latest HPU Poll finds an approval rating for Barack Obama at 43 percent. When put into historical perspective, Obama’s job performance rating is similar to that of former President Jimmy Carter’s job performance rating at the same time in his campaign – the fall before he failed to gain re-election, but lower than that of former President Ronald Reagan, who won a second term election.
The HPU Poll compares its most recent ratings with those fielded by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Carolina Poll in 1979, the fall before President Carter faced re-election, and in 1983, the fall before President Reagan was re-elected. The questions that North Carolinians answered in the HPU Poll were the same as those asked three decades ago in the Carolina Poll.
HPU Poll: Do you approve or disapprove of the way that Barack Obama is handling his job as president?
Approve: 43 percent
Disapprove: 48 percent
Don’t know/refuse: 9 percent
HPU Poll, compared to the same question from the Carolina Poll in 1983: How would you rate the job Barack Obama has been doing as president? Would you say excellent, pretty good, only fair or poor?
For Obama in 2011, the responses were: 13 percent (excellent), 23 percent (pretty good), 30 percent (only fair), 32 percent (poor), and 2 percent expressing no opinion.
For Reagan in 1983, the responses were: 12 percent (excellent), 45 percent (pretty good), 30 percent (only fair), 12 percent (poor), and 1 percent expressing no opinion.
HPU Poll, compared to the same question from the Carolina Poll in 1979: On the whole, do you think Barack Obama has been doing a good job or poor job as president?
For Obama in 2011, the responses were: 44 percent (good), 46 percent (poor), and 9 percent expressing no opinion.
For Carter in 1979, the responses were: 47 percent (good), 46 percent (poor), and 7 percent expressing no opinion.
“This new data puts the upcoming presidential election in some historical perspective since President Reagan won a second term and President Carter did not,” said Assistant HPU Poll Director Sadie Leder. “We are still a long way out from Election Day and a lot may happen between now and then, but these results may be suggestive of the challenges ahead for President Obama.”
“Both Carter and Reagan are relevant because they present good comparisons to Obama’s situation,” adds Martin Kifer, director of the HPU Poll. “Both Carter and Reagan won the presidency with North Carolina within their electoral majorities just as Obama did in 2008.”
The High Point University Survey Research Center fielded the survey from Nov. 6-10 and 12-17, 2011. The responses came from 703 adults with landline and cellular telephones in North Carolina selected by a Random Digit Dial (RDD) method, giving the survey a margin of sampling error of approximately 4 percentage points. For smaller subsamples the margin of sampling error is larger. In addition to sampling error, factors such as question wording and other methodological choices in conducting survey research can introduce additional error into the findings of opinion polls.
Further results and methodological details from the survey and can be found at the Survey Research Center Web site,http://src.highpoint.edu/ , or from Dr. Martin Kifer, the center’s director, at [email protected] or 336-841-9333.
The Carolina Polls from which this press release takes additional findings is archived at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Odum Institute (http://arc.irss.unc.edu/dvn/dv/odvn). They were fielded in October 1979 and 1983. In 1979, the responses came from 612 adults with landline phones in North Carolina, giving the survey a margin of sampling error of approximately 4 percentage points. In 1983, the responses came from 586 adults with landline phones in North Carolina, giving the survey a margin of sampling error of approximately 4.1 percentage points. All frequencies reported in this release are from data downloaded from the Odum Institute’s archive, using provided case weights.
At High Point University, every student receives an extraordinary education in an inspiring environment with caring people.℠ HPU, located in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina, is a liberal arts institution with over 4,200 undergraduate and graduate students from 51 countries and 46 states at campuses in High Point and Winston-Salem. It is ranked by US News and World Report at No. 3 among Regional Colleges in the South. Forbes.com ranks HPU in the top 7 percent among “America’s Best Colleges.” Parade Magazine lists HPU in the top 25 private schools in the nation. HPU was selected in the 2010-2011 list of “Colleges of Distinction,” as well as one of the top green schools in the country by the Sierra Club. The university offers 50 undergraduate majors, 43 undergraduate minors and 10 graduate degree programs. It is accredited by the Commission of Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, and is a member of the NCAA, Division I and the Big South Conference. Visit High Point University on the Web at highpoint.edu.
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Pam Haynes
Communication Specialist
336-841-9055
[email protected]