LOS ANGELES — For the first time this year, more people approve of President Barack Obama’s performance than disapprove, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday morning.
The latest soundings come as the White House is seeking to deal with the political fallout from the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the president has been trying to find a route to bipartisanship by reaching out to GOP lawmakers in the hope of getting help with his legislative agenda.
According to the Quinnipiac poll, American voters approve of Obama’s job performance by 48 percent to 43 percent, up from April, when 44 percent approved and 46 percent disapproved. The overall approval was the first since December, according to the poll.
The findings are based on a survey of 1,914 people from May 19 to May 24. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.
“The increase in President Barack Obama’s job approval is a welcome step for the White House. His ratings have been in the no man’s land of just below parity for some time, and now the question is whether this is the beginning of an upward trend or just a blip,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University poll.
The poll follows most other national polls showing a steady erosion of faith in Obama since he took office. Of course, Obama’s popularity then was at an all-time high, partly because he was following George W. Bush, whose administration ended with a political thump, and partly from Obama’s own upbeat campaign that led him to become the nation’s first African-American president.
“I know it’s been 18 tough months,” Obama said Tuesday night at a fundraiser in San Francisco. “And I know I’ve got more gray hair. I know some folks say, ‘Well, you know, he’s not as cool as he was.’ “
The president blamed his loss of popularity on the reality that governing is harder than winning an election, as difficult as that may be.
“Remember what the campaign was about — hope, change,” Obama told supporters. “People weren’t paying attention to me when I said change is hard. People — a lot of folks, they just missed that part. They were like, hope, change — and they thought, nice swearing-in, you got Bruce Springsteen singing. Everybody is feeling good. This is going to happen fast.
“Well, no. If it was easy, it would’ve happened before.”
Complicating the president’s standing is the administration’s inability to find a working relationship with Republicans.
