Barack Obama walks outside the White House in June.

Barack Obama walks outside the White House in June. Charles Dharapak/AP

Obama's Approval Ratings Have Taken a Huge Hit After Scandals

Numbers dip especially among young people and on handling of terrorism.

A new CNN poll shows President Obama's approval ratings taking a nose dive in recent weeks, a development that is probably not unrelated to the deluge of second-term scandals that have taken over the media. The poll, conducted in the middle of last week, shows the president's disapproval rating at 54 percent, his worst marks in about a year and a half, since November of 2011. Even more notable, the rating has swung nine points since the last time the poll was taken in mid-May, which predates all of the National Security Agency leaks that have been provided by Edward Snowden.

Normally, that would be understandable given all the negative news of the last week, but the president has to be concerned that the biggest drop came among people under 30 years old. His support among that key group dropped an astonishing 17 points in the last month.

A deeper dive into more specific questions shows that Obama is seeing his marks fall across the board, although on issues like the economy, the deficit, and immigration, his numbers are mostly unchanged. (Or at least within the margin or error.) When asked how he's handling terrorism, however, the president's numbers take the biggest hit. He's still at a 52-percent approval rating, but that's down from 65 percent in January, after having a consistent rating in the 60s since 2010.

Read more on The Atlantic Wire