Obama's Approval at All-Time Low Among Low-Income Individuals

The president's approval fell to it's lowest weekly rating among the very poor and a segment of the middle class according to a Gallup poll update from Thursday afternoon.

That's bad news for the President Obama, as this week marks the supposed end of an extended period of contentious debate over the debt ceiling limit. His calls to make the rich 'pay their fair share' in a national television address last week were probably intended to appeal to the poorer segments of America, but new statistics show just the opposite actually happened.

The Gallup poll's Presidential Job Approval Center keeps measurements of how the nation feels about more than 10 of the country's most recent leaders, with a daily update in the early afternoon as well as weekly averages. This week, the poll reports a two point increase in American disapproval of Obama, raising that statistic to 52 percent overall. But Gallup has reported record approval drops in those it considers poor, people earning less than $2,000 dollars a month, and one portion of the middle class, people earning between $5000 and $7,499 a month.

Among the poorest Americans, the president’s approval started at 54 percent in the week of June 13-19 and dropped to a record low of 43 percent last week (July 25-July 31). Obama's approval dropped from 52 percent to a record low of 38 percent among those middle-class Americans earning between $5,000 and $7,499 per month, during that same week. That week, of course, was one full of political conflict over the debt limit, which is now panning out to affect many other governmental organizations including the Federal Aviation Administration.

Over the past seven weeks, the poll reports presidential approval has fallen 11 percentage points among the poorest Americans and 14 percentage points among that portion of the middle class specified earlier.

Perhaps equally if not more interesting - a point made by a report from CNS News:

In fact, according to Gallup, Obama enjoys no more approval among the poorest Americans today than he does among the richest—and he enjoys significantly less approval among middle class Americans earning between $5,000 to $7,499 than he does among the richest Americans as measure by the income brackets reported by Gallup (those earning $7,500 per month or more).

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In one way at least, Obama has leveled the playing field: The poor are now no more likely to approve of the job he is doing than the rich.

As President Obama marks a major milestone in celebrating his 50th birthday, this news comes as maybe not the best birthday present.