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Obama: 'Major decline,' Gates saga hurt
by Mark Silva
As President Barack Obama sits down with a Harvard professor and Cambridge police officer involved in what the president had deemed an episode of racial profiling, he may not find a lot of public support for his handling of the matter.
A Pew Research Center poll has found that more people disapprove (41 percent) than approve (29 percent) of the president's handling of the situation, following Obama's public declaration that the Cambridge police had "acted stupidly'' in arresting Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., an African-American scholar, at his home earlier this monththe president later told the arresting officer, Sgt. James Crowley, that he regretted his "choice of words.''
Among those with an opinion, fault for what happened at Gates' home appears evenly divided between the professor and the police officer.
"Based on what people have heard about the incident in Cambridge, 27 percent blame Gates, 25 percent fault the police officer, 13 percent volunteer both or neither, and 36 percent offer no opinion,'' Pew reports today.
The broader results of the Pew Research Center's poll also represent another major survey showing a slide in Obama's job-approval ratingsand Obama's handling of the Gates affair may have contributed to weakening his support among white respondents surveyed for the poll.
"Barack Obama's approval ratings have suffered major declines,'' Pew reports. "The president's overall job approval number fell from 61 percent in mid-June to 54 percent.''
The slide, Pew notes, is "'across the board:"
"His approval ratings for handling the economy and the federal budget deficit have also fallen sharply, tumbling to 38 percent and 32 percent, respectively,'' Pew reports. "Majorities now say they disapprove of the way the president is handling these two issues.
"The new poll also finds significant declines over the last few months in the percentage of Americans giving Obama high marks for dealing with health care, foreign policy and tax policy,'' Pew notes.
The Gallup Poll also registered a new low for Obama this week in its daily tracking surveys54 percent approval.
The Pew survey of 1,506 adults was conducted July 22-26.
" Obama's comments on the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. appear to have played some role in his ratings decline,'' Pew adds. "News about the arrest of the prominent African American Harvard professor at his Cambridge home was widely followed by the public and 79 percent are aware of Obama's comments on the incident.
"Analysis of the poll data found that the president's approval ratings fell among non-Hispanic whites over the course of the interviewing period as the focus of the Gates story shifted from details about the incident to Obama's remarks about the incident,'' Pew notes.
" Interviews Wednesday and Thursday of last week found 53 precent of whites approving of Obama's job performance. This slipped to 46 percent among whites interviewed Friday through Sunday as the Gates story played out across the nation.
"Consistent with this trend, a small re-contact survey conducted Monday night finds a mostly negative reaction, particularly among whites, to Obama's comments on the controversy, even though the public is closely divided over who was at fault in the original dispute. ''
For more, see the Pew poll.
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