Obama's Approval Rating Drops to Lowest Ever, According to Gallup

Saturday: President Obama leaves the Oval Office of the White House on his way to play golf at Andrews Air Force Base. (AP)

President Obama’s approval rating dropped to below 40 percent, an all-time low, according to Gallup’s daily tracking poll.

The poll released Sunday says 39 percent of Americans approve of Obama’s performance, while 54 percent disapprove.

The slide comes as Obama launches a political counteroffensive this week, while he’s weighed down by wilting support among some of his most ardent backers, a stunted economy and a daily bashing from the slew of Republicans campaigning for his job.

"We've still got a long way to go to get to where we need to be. We didn't get into this mess overnight, and it's going to take time to get out of it," the president told the U.S. over the weekend, all but pleading for people to stick with him.

A deeply unsettled political landscape, with voters in a fiercely anti-incumbent mood, is framing the 2012 presidential race 15 months before Americans decide whether to give Obama a second term or hand power to the Republicans. Trying to ride out what seems to be an unrelenting storm of economic anxiety, people in the United States increasingly are voicing disgust with most all of the men and women, Obama included, they sent to Washington to govern them.

A poll Gallup released Friday on congressional approval showed that Democrats hold an edge over Republicans in the 2012 elections; 51 percent of registered voters favored Democrats, while 44 percent favored GOP lawmakers "if the elections for Congress were being held today."

The Democratic president will try to ease voter worries and sustain his resurrected fighting spirit when he sets off Monday on a bus tour of Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois. The trip is timed to dilute the buzz emanating from the Midwest after Republicans gathered in Iowa over the weekend for a first test of the party's White House candidates. The state holds the nation's first nominating test in the long road toward choosing Obama's opponent.

The three-day tracking poll for the president was conducted from Aug. 11-13. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points, according to Gallup. The congressional poll was conducted from Aug. 4-7, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.