Obama's Approval Rating Falls To 45 Percent, Lowest In Year And A Half

Despite weathering three previous scandals over the IRS auditing right-wing groups, the Justice Department seizing journalists’ phone records, and the Benghazi hearings, the approval ratings of U.S. President Barack Obama finally took a hit over new NSA revelations. Obama’s numbers dropped eight points, from 53 percent in mid-May to 45 percent, his lowest rating in more than a year and a half, according to a new CNN/ORC International poll released on Monday.

CNN reports that this is the first time since November 2011 that a majority of Americans – 54 percent – have had a negative view of the president. "The drop in Obama's support is fueled by a dramatic 17-point decline over the past month among people under 30, who, along with black Americans, had been the most loyal part of the Obama coalition," CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said in a statement.

Holland also attributed the drop to the National Security Agency scandal, but noted that older issues “like the IRS matter” may have added weight, where previously the public hadn't been blaming Obama for these missteps, as the Wall Street Journal previously postulated.

In an interesting twist, 66 percent of Americans polled said the government was right to gather and analyze Internet data, and 51 percent thought it was right to analyze phone records. Meanwhile, 52 percent also disapproved of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s decision to make these NSA actions public, while 49 percent thought Obama was “honest and trustworthy.”

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