A growing majority of Americans disapprove of President Obama’s handling of Iraq, revealed a pair of new polls.
Obama got his worst marks yet for dealing with Iraq in an ABC News-Washington Post poll released Tuesday, with 52 percent disapproving. Strong negative attitudes toward Obama’s Iraq policy outpaced strong approval by a 2-to-1 margin, 34 percent to 17 percent.
It was the first time the poll found disapproval of Mr. Obama’s handling of Iraq topped approval, 52 percent to 42 percent.
Another poll by CBS News/New York Times found disapproval of Mr. Obama’s dealing with Iraq had spiked to 58 percent, a jump of 10 points in the last month and the president’s worst score on Iraq in the poll since he took office in 2009.
The sharp increase in disapproval was especially strong among Democrats, nearly a third of whom said they did not approve of Mr. Obama’s handling of foreign policy, according to the pollsters.
In the ABC-Post poll, Americans split over whether the U.S. should launch air strikes against the Islamic extremist militants gaining ground in Iraq, with 45 percent in support of strikes and 46 percent opposed.
Most Americans, however, don’t want the president to send in U.S. ground troops. About 60 percent of voters opposed deploying U.S. troops, with the opposition spread evenly among Democrats, Republicans and independents.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.