AP Poll: Obama on Oil Spill - Majority Disapprove

Bad news for Obama.

A new AP poll shows that the majority of Americans are not pleased with his response.

This is Obama's Katrina.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Americans are just as down on President Barack Obama for his response to the Gulf oil spill as they were on President George W. Bush for his handling of the devastation unleashed by Hurricane Katrina, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll released Tuesday.

And, now, like in 2005, most Americans are angry about the government's slow response, with 54 percent saying they had strong feelings about the bureaucracy's reaction. Many doubt that Washington could really help them if they were a disaster victim.

...The survey found that 52 percent don't approve of Obama's handling of the spill, a significant increase from last month when a big chunk of Americans withheld judgment. A stunning 83 percent disapprove of BP's performance in the aftermath of the explosion that triggered the spill of millions of gallons 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.

The survey comes as the president seeks to show more forceful leadership on the disaster and convince a skeptical public he's up to the task.

...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's 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's in command of the response. The president was wrapping up a two-day visit to the region and planned an Oval Office 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 this fall's midterm 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.