Over half of all Americans disapprove of Barack Obama's presidential performance, a latest poll suggests.
The poll by NBC News/Wall Street Journal reveals that 54 percent of Americans are not happy with Obama's performance as President while 42 percent thought he did a good job.
For the survey, a total of 1,000 adults were interviewed from December 4 to December 8.
According to the results, only 28 percent believed that Obama was able to achieve his goals, 37 percent said he was an honest and straightforward president and 44 percent said he was good at handling crisis.
Obama's popularity has gone down significantly. In January this year, his approval rating was 54 percent while 44 percent of the people disproved of his performance.
"These are tough and sobering numbers for the president and his administration," said Democratic pollster Fred Yang who conducted the survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff, reports First Read.
"A rousing chorus of Bah! Humbug! for President Barack Obama as American voters head into the holidays with little charitable to say about the president," said Tim Malloy, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
Obama recently courted controversy by shaking hands with Cuban President Raul Castro at the memorial service of Nelson Mandela, held in Johannesburg. Relations between the United States and Cuba have always been strained since a long time. The United States has imposed sanctions against the communist regime for the past 50 years and is also not happy with Cuba's poor human rights record.
The opposition was quick to react to Obama's gesture. Senator Marco Rubio, whose parents left Cuba three years before Raul's brother and predecessor Fidel Castro took power, told ABC News that Obama "should have asked him about those basic freedoms Mandela was associated with that are denied in Cuba."
