According to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll Obama's rating is down 5 points from early last month. For the first time in the survey, more people - 48 percent - say they disapprove of Obama's job performance.
But according to a Pew Research poll, the president has tackled many difficult issues and been darn unlucky with Lady Luck since taking office. Obama has signed a controversial health care measure, coped with a stubbornly high jobless rate, and struggled to manage the largest environmental disaster in the nation's history.
Going into the G8 and G20, the Obama Administration is also concerned about the potential fallout for the United States of the European debt crisis, which could dampen world growth and depress US exports.
Add to this mix the well-publicized dismissal and replacement of General Stanley McChrystal as NATO's top military person in Afghanistan after the general's disparaging comments to Rolling Stone magazine have added to uncertainty about the unpopular nine-year-old war.
The WSJ/ABC poll says that a majority of respondents, 62 percent, said the country is on the wrong track.
Forty-nine percent of those surveyed rate Obama positively on "strong leadership qualities," down from 70 percent when he became president and a drop of 8 points since January.
The WSJ/ABC poll also showed growing concern over the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and slipping confidence in Obama's handling of the environmental disaster that has shut down rich fishing grounds and soiled the coastlines of four US states.
Half of those polled said they disapprove of Obama's handling of the spill, including one in four Democrats. Forty percent of respondents rate him positively on his "ability to handle a crisis," was down 11 points since January.
The oil spill has slightly changed Americans' attitudes about offshore drilling, the poll found.
In May, 60 percent of respondents said they favor more offshore drilling off the US coast. In this poll, support slipped to 53 percent and nearly two-thirds of respondents said they wanted more regulation of oil companies.
But Pew says that on major issues, ranging from the economy to Afghanistan, Obama's ratings also have changed little since the beginning of the year. He continues to get his highest ratings on foreign policy, energy policy, Afghanistan and Iraq; Obama gets his worst marks on the budget deficit and immigration. His personal image, while not as strong as it was in January, remains generally positive, says the Pew pollsters. Fully 77 percent view him as a good communicator, while 68 percent see him as warm and friendly, and 67 percent say he is well-informed.
On the other hand, ratings for his ability to get things done (55 percent) and strong leadership (53 percent) are much lower. The proportion viewing him as a strong leader has declined markedly since February 2009, from 77 percent to 53 percent.
So with such diverse conclusions from the pollsters, Obama continues to press ahead. What remains certain is that it will be interesting to note if these pressing problems will affect his meetings with world leaders in Canada later this week.
