Public not sold on Obama’s legacy

As President Obama tries to convince Americans that his presidency is a success, the public isn’t buying it.

About 51 percent of Americans believe the administration’s failures will outweigh its accomplishments, according to a Pew Research Center survey released Friday. In the poll, 39 percent said the president’s accomplishments will outweigh his failures.

When given the option of answering “it’s too early to tell” about Mr. Obama’s legacy, 26 percent chose that response, with 37 percent saying they think Mr. Obama will be successful in the long run and 34 percent saying history will remember him as unsuccessful.

Mr. Obama took a victory lap on Wednesday, traveling to Detroit to take credit for his bailout of the auto industry in 2009 and the industry’s current strong performance.

But as Mr. Obama enters his final year in office, the public’s assessment of his tenure is more negative than positive.

A Huffington Post/YouGov poll this week found that 41 percent of respondents say their own lives have become worse since Mr. Obama was elected. Only 28 percent said their lives were better, and 26 percent said they were about the same.

That survey showed deep partisan divisions in the responses. Fifty-one percent of Democrats said their lives were better under Mr. Obama, while only 9 percent of Republicans and 23 percent of independents felt they were better off.

In the HuffPost poll, 50 percent of all respondents said the U.S. has become weaker internationally under Mr. Obama, while 19 percent said the country is stronger on the world stage. Among Republicans, 85 percent believe the country is weaker internationally, while 53 percent of independents and 16 percent of Democrats agreed.

Mr. Obama’s job-approval rating (46 percent in the Pew poll) is lower than President Bill Clinton’s at the same point of his presidency (56 percent), but higher than that of Republican President George W. Bush in January 2008 (31 percent).

President Reagan began his final year in office with 50 percent job approval, a rating that surged to the low 60 percent range by the time he left office.