American Jews approve and disapprove of President Barack Obama’s performance in roughly equal numbers, according to a new poll by the American Jewish Committee.
AJC’s annual poll, released Sept. 26, showed 45 percent of Jews approve of Obama as opposed to 48 percent disapproving — a statistical tie with a margin of error of 3 percentage points. The numbers show a substantial drop for Obama from the 57 percent who approved of his performance in the 2010 AJC survey.
Much of the disappointment stems from his handling of the economy, with 59.5 percent disapproving and 39.5 percent approving.
There was a drop in perceptions of how Obama handled the U.S.-Israel relationship, with 53 percent disapproving and 40 percent approving this year, as opposed to 45 percent disapproving and 49 percent approving last year. — jta