President Obama’s approval rating is essentially unchanged over the last two months, holding steady despite a series of Washington controversies, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.
The survey showed 48 percent of voters approve of the president’s performance, compared to 47 percent who disapprove. An April survey showed 48 percent who disapproved, while 47 approved. Considering the margin of error for the poll, there is no statistical difference between Obama’s ratings in April and June.
And the NBC News/WSJ poll is in line with other polls that show Obama has not dipped over the last two months. A recent CNN/ORC International survey showed Obama’s approval at 53 percent, slightly up from 51 percent approval when those organizations polled voters in April.
This is good news for Obama, who has found himself under siege from not only Republicans but the press and even some fellow Democrats over allegations that the Department of Justice improperly seized the phone records of journalists from the Associated Press and Fox News, and the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative Tea Party groups for closer scrutiny.
His approval rating has dropped among independents, from 37 percent in April to 28 percent now. But the president’s base remains with him, as 88 percent of blacks and 52 percent of women approve of Obama.