With a little over a year until the presidential election, Barack Obama's hopes for a second term increasingly depend on how Americans view his handing of the unemployment crisis -- and that view is only getting worse.
In fact, a substantial majority of Americans now view President Obama's ability to deal with the jobs crisis negatively, a recent poll by Harris Interactive finds. Surveying 2,163 adults between June 13-20, Harris Interactive reports that 74 percent of Americans view President Obama's work on jobs to be "poor" or "only fair."
Just 24 percent of those polled said he had done an "excellent job" or a "pretty good" job, falling from 29 percent when a similar poll was taken in February.
And the negative views don't fall strictly along party lines, either. While just 6 percent of Republicans gave him a rating of "excellent" or "pretty good," well below half of surveyed Democrats (42 percent) gave him a positive rating on jobs. Independents fell in the middle, as 17 percent thought his efforts to lower unemployment have been positive.
President Obama did however score better in other areas especially within his own party. 65 percent of Democrats said he had done a good job in the Middle East, compared to 38 percent total. Obama received his strongest ratings from Republicans on the environment, with 13 percent rating his efforts positively compared to 37 percent total.
Despite some pockets of approval, Obama's inability to create jobs could hurt him during his reelection campaign create jobs. While his work on the environment and the success of Osama bin Laden's assassination may be helpful come election day, a high unemployment rate could vastly reduce his reelection chances.
Indeed, a United States President has not been reelected with an unemployment rate above 7.2 percent since World War II.