WASHINGTON (AP) — A majority of Americans disapprove of how President Barack Obama has handled the devastating Gulf oil spill though far more blame BP for what people call a sluggish two-month response, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll released Tuesday.
It comes as the president seeks to show more forceful leadership in confronting the worst U.S. environmental crisis and convince a skeptical public he is up to the task.
The survey found that 52 percent do not approve of Obama’s handling of the spill, a significant increase from last month when a significant chunk of Americans withheld judgment. But Obama’s overall job performance rating did not suffer; it stayed virtually the same at 50 percent. That is consistent with the public’s attitudes throughout his young presidency; people generally like him but don’t necessarily agree with his policies.
The public is directing most of its ire at the oil company that leased the rig. A stunning 83 percent disapprove of BP’s performance in the aftermath of the April 20 explosion that killed 11 workers and triggered the spill of millions of gallons (liters)of crude. That number of Americans disapproving also was a big jump from May.
Back then, people seemed to take a more wait-and-see approach.
But public attitudes have shifted dramatically as Americans already reeling over a recession and angry at institutions of all types — from corporations to Congress — watched oil continue to gush while both BP and the government struggled to find a solution and clean up the mess.
Far more people are focused on the spill now as oil coats beaches, kills wildlife and cripples the Gulf economy; 87 percent now say the issue is extraordinarily important to them personally, second only to the economy. And far more rate the environment — 72 percent — as very important than did last month.
More than half reported strong feelings of anger over the speed of the government’s response, and about a third said they felt a strong degree of shame about what is happening in the Gulf. Nearly a third expressed strong feelings of doubt over whether the government could really help them if they were a disaster victim and more than half doubted that the government’s response to the oil spill, thus far, has had any impact.
All that underscores the public’s widespread lack of faith in government as well as the task ahead for Obama as he tries to show he is in command of the response. The president was wrapping up a two-day visit to the region and planned an Oval Office television prime-time speech on the catastrophe later Tuesday. Obama was meeting BP executives at the White House on Wednesday.
His response is all but certain to be a political issue, defining his presidency and, perhaps, affecting the November congressional elections if not his likely re-election race in two years.
Nearly three quarters in the poll said they thought the spill will have some impact on their own families in the next year; 63 percent said the country would still be feeling the impact in five years while 40 percent said it would be more like a decade.
The AP-GfK Poll was conducted June 9-14 by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Corporate Communications. It involved interviews on landline and cell phones with 1,044 adults nationwide, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.
