Gallup: Obama Approval Rating Stuck at 43%

President Barack Obama’s job approval rating is caught in a funk. A new Gallup Poll shows the rating stood at 43 percent last week, identical to the prior four weeks. The president’s disapproval rating registered 49 percent last week, also unchanged from a week earlier.

To be sure, Obama’s approval rating has recovered from his term low of 40 percent, which was recorded in August during the debt ceiling saga. Still, Obama’s rating has sagged from the 45-50 percent range it occupied for much of the first half of the year. In January, it stood at 49 percent.

The numbers are ominous for Obama’s re-election bid. No president since Harry Truman has won re-election with an approval rating below 50 percent. Truman was re-elected in 1948 with an approval rating of 48 percent. George W. Bush won re-election with an approval rating of 50 percent in 2004.

Obama's approval rating has dropped most among independents – to 30 percent from 40 percent in January. Independents make up 14 percent of the population and are crucial to Obama’s re-election chances. So those numbers undoubtedly raise concern in his camp.

Among moderate/liberal Republicans, Obama’s approval rating fell to 21 percent last week from 29 percent in January. And among moderate Democrats, his approval rating slid to 75 percent from 81 percent.