Approval for Obama over Republicans on debt limit

Republicans are more likely to feel Americans' scorn than will President Barack Obama if no resolution is found to the US debt limit crisis, according to a poll released on Thursday. Quinnipiac University pollsters said 48 percent of voters said they will blame Republicans if the debt ceiling is not raised, as opposed to 34 percent who will fault Obama. The survey was released with the president and his Republican foes engaged in a series of tense talks to avert a ruinous early August US debt default, and with ratings agency Moody's warning that the United States may lose its sterling triple-A debt rating if it fails to resolve the crisis before the deadline. Pollsters found that 56 percent of Americans disapprove of how the president has managed the economy, against 38 percent who said they approve. But by 45 percent to 38 percent, they said they trust him more than congressional Republicans, according to Quinnipiac. "The American people aren't very happy about their leaders, but President Barack Obama is viewed as the best of the worst, especially when it comes to the economy," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. Obama garnered a 47 percent overall job approval rating in the poll, while 46 percent said they disapprove. That was considerably better than the approval rating for either Congress (68 percent disapproval, 28 percent approval) or Republicans (65 percent disapproval, 26 percent approval.) More respondents in the Quinnipiac poll pinned blame on Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, for the state of the economy than they do the incumbent president, by 54 percent to 27 percent. "Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of President Obama's handling of the economy, but by two to one, they pin the blame on former president George W. Bush rather than Obama, who is now more than 60 percent through his term of office," Brown said.