Obama takes beating in new poll that says 53% of Americans disapprove of his performance as President

A new poll indicates that many Democrats are abandoning Barack Obama over his mishandling of international negotiations, particularly with Iran and weakness in dealing with Islamist terrorism.

The poll, conducted between March 1 and 3 of 1011 registered voters with a plus or minus 3% margin of error, suggests that President Obama has lost the confidence of most Americans.

According to the poll, 53% of Americans disapprove of Obama's performance as President, while only 42% approve. As far as his abilities as a negotiator on international issues, 59% believe Obama is a weak negotiator and only 34% think he is strong.

On his veto of the Keystone XL, 46% disapprove of Obama's actions while 33% approve of the President, and 65% of Americans think he should sign a deal allowing the pipeline that would bring Canadian oil to the US.

Most damning for Obama is his handling of negotiations aimed at preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons technology. 57% of American voters believe he has not been aggressive enough and 65% believe the US should take military action against Iran if it is necessary to prevent them from acquiring an atomic bomb.

Despite Obama and his most loyal Democratic caucus members' opposition to Benjamin Netanyahu addressing a joint session of Congress this week, a full 56% of Americans think the Israeli Prime Minister's address was a good thing.

Obama's perceived softness on Islamic terrorism is reflected in poll results which say that 54% of Americans believe the President is more interested in downplaying the threat from terror group ISIS than compared to the 36% who believe that he is focused on stopping ISIS.

In the lead-up to the 2016 election season, the dismal results show that association with the President will be more of a liability to many Democrats than an asset. Many members of his party up for re-election in the Senate, as well as House Representatives, who all face an election in November 2016, may start to distance themselves from the floundering President to help their own campaigns.