Obama approval 50 percent or higher in 16 states

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PRINCETON, N.J., Aug. 8 (UPI) -- People in 16 states and the District of Columbia gave President Obama at least a 50 percent approval rating for the first half of 2011, Gallup reported.

Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia and Maryland paced the approval ratings for Obama, while Idaho residents had the least positive appraisal of his job performance, the results released Monday indicated.

Obama averaged 47 percent approval on a nationwide basis during the first six months of the year, based on data weighted to be demographically representative of the state's population, the Princeton, N.J., polling agency said.

Obama's support is greatest in the East, with eight of his 10 highest approval ratings occurring in the Northeast or Mid-Atlantic regions. Gallup said Obama's home state of Hawaii, where he was born, and Illinois, where he lived before being elected president, also were among the top tier.

The District of Columbia lead all giving Obama more than 50 percent approval. The states that topped 50 percent were, in order, Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware, New York, Massachusetts, Hawaii, Vermont, Illinois, New Jersey, California, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin, Maine and Michigan.

States giving Obama his lowest approval ratings are more varied, with several in the West, South and Midwest. The bottom 10 states were Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Arkansas, Montana, Kentucky, North Dakota, and Alabama and Kansas (tied).

Obama's national average approval rating of 47 percent for the first half of 2012 matches his average nationwide approval rating for all of 2010, Gallup said.

Gallup said Obama got a 50 percent or higher approval rating in 16 states in 2011 compared with 12 states in 2010, along with the District of Columbia in both time periods.

Results are based on nationwide telephone interviews of 89,965 adults conducted as part of Gallup Daily tracking Jan. 2-June 30. The margin of error for the total sample is 1 percentage point.