The latest Harris Poll finds that President Obama's positive job rating has slipped for the second month running. In January he recorded his best rating (44%) since 2009, but it edged downwards to 42% in February and 39% now. The public's rating of Congress has also slumped, with fully 90% of all adults now giving it a negative rating, compared to 86% in February and 84% in January.

Another indication of the public's sour mood is that those who think the country is on the wrong track have increased by 8 points from 64% in February to 72% now.

Trends in approval

The president's current job rating (39% positive) is only slightly better than the lowest ratings of his presidency which occurred during the last three months of last year, at 37%, 38% and 36%. His rating is still strongly correlated with education, with only 29% of people who never went to college giving him positive marks compared to 54% of people with post graduate education and 47% of those with a college degree.

The ratings of Congress have, in recent years, only once been as bad as they are now. In March 2010 Congress also had a negative 90% job rating.

The last time that the proportion of the public who think the country is on the wrong track was higher than it is now was in 2008, before President Obama was elected and the country was reeling from the crisis on Wall Street.

So What?

While some Republicans, with their eyes on the 2012 elections, may be pleased to see the President's rating slip, there are no winners in this poll. Rather, the poll underlines the poor opinions that most people have of Washington and especially of Congress, where the Republicans are in control of the House. This is not totally a partisan divide, but rather where all Americans have negative views.