Alabama Approvals

More Alabama voters disapprove than approve of the job Barack Obama is doing as President so far, but he's doing better in the court of public opinion now than he did at the polls in the state last November.

47% of Alabamans disapprove of Obama's job performance, with 45% approving. He received 39% of the vote there against John McCain.

His numbers are breaking down with the same polarization along party lines that we find everywhere. He's immensely popular with Democrats as 84% give him good marks, but just 11% of Republicans think he's doing a good job. Among independents the spread is 49% disapproving and 40% in approval.

Not surprisingly he's getting his best marks from the groups he performed the strongest with at the ballot box last year. 85% of African Americans and 54% of voters under 30 approve of what he's doing, while only 28% of whites and 41% of senior citizens do.

The state's Republican Senators and Governor are all relatively popular. Jeff Sessions' approval is 50/33 and Richard Shelby's is 48/35. That ranks them 11th and 12th among 27 Senators PPP has gaged the approval of over the last year, or slightly better than average.

Bob Riley's approval rating is 51/36. He is easily the most popular of the major politicians in the state with independent voters, earning a 56% approval. He gets better numbers among Democrats- a 31% approval compared to 25% and 22% for Sessions and Shelby respectively but worse numbers among Republicans- a 67% approval compared to 74% and 72% for Sessions and Shelby.

PPP will release numbers looking at the 2010 picture for Governor in the state tomorrow.

Full results here.