国际英语新闻：Tough times for Obama, but it could be worse

Still, the president's approval ratings continue to go lower. A Gallup tracking poll released Tuesday found that a majority of Americans -- 51 percent -- disapproved of Obama's overall performance.

This week, the president also took flak over the economy. An Associated Press poll released Wednesday found that 56 percent of respondents disapproved of how the president is steering the economy. Forty-one percent said they approved, down from 44 percent in April.

While Obama has been zigzagging across the nation to deliver his "summer of recovery" message that the economy is finally improving, voters fret over the nation's near double-digit unemployment numbers, which economists say will not return to pre-recession levels for a few years.

Critics say Obama's policies are doing nothing to create jobs, and some have voiced worries that the administration's heavy spending is only adding to the ballooning deficit.

The administration has responded to those charges, saying it is creating jobs in the manufacturing sector and pointing out that exports in the first quarter of 2010 rose 17 percent year on year.

The administration has also said it inherited a mess created by what it said were poor polices from the previous administration.

Still, the president's sliding popularity is stirring speculation that Democrats are keeping their distance from him -- Democratic nominee for governor of Texas Bill White was absent during Obama's recent visit to that state.

Some analysts predict the party could lose large swaths of political territory and even control of the House.

But others say the Democrats' chances of losing the House are about 50-50 and that a GOP takeover of the Senate is less likely.