President Barack Obama's job approval rating has reached an all-time low in Iowa, with a meager 38 percent of voters backing his performance, says a new poll.
According to the
Quinnipiac University survey, 59 percent of voters in the Hawkeye State, which launched Obama's presidential candidacy in 2008, disapprove of the job he's doing in the White House.
The startling figures, which are being blamed on the Obamacare website train wreck, compared to a 41 percent disapproval and 55 percent approval rating back in July, also in a study conducted by the independent Connecticut university.
The news for Obama is even worse when it comes to male voters, with 67 percent saying they do not approve of his performance, compared to 30 percent who give him a positive rating. The numbers for female voters are also underwhelming, with 51 percent who don't approve compared to 45 percent who do.
On a party-line basis, Republicans reject the president by 93 percent compared to 7 percent who do, while among independent voters, 31 percent approve of his job performance, compared to 62 percent who don't.
"President Obama twice carried Iowa, and it was the Iowa caucuses which began his march to the presidency, but if he were on the ballot today he would be toast," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
"And his overwhelmingly negative job approval, including thumbs-down from 15 percent of Democrats and 62 percent of independent voters, could be having an impact on the prospects for Iowa Democrats who do face the voters in 2014," Brown said.
"Half of the voters say their Senate vote will have nothing to do with Obama, but among the other half twice as many says it's a vote against the president rather than for him," Brown added.
In the Senate race for next year, Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley gets 43 percent of the vote while U.S. Attorney Matt Whitaker, the leading Republican in the race, gets 40 percent. Braley also tops the four other GOP contenders, according to the poll.
"Iowa voters say 2-1 they want a senator who opposes Obamacare," Brown said.
Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin, 74, has announced that he does not plan to seek re-election for a sixth term.
The phone poll of 1,617 registered voters was taken Dec. 10-15, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.
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