Tomorrow signals the official start of autumn, and leaves will soon start falling our nation's capital. They won't be alone though, as President Obama's ratings continue to fall. Only three in ten U.S. adults (30%) give the President positive ratings for the overall job he is doing, while 70% give him negative ratings. One could say that autumn came early to the White House, given that his ratings began to fall in summer. President Obama had his highest ratings for this year in May and June, when positive ratings sat at 38%. With July came an early fall, to 34%, continuing to 32% in August. The 30% of Americans now giving the President's overall job performance a positive rating is the lowest level seen thus far for this administration.

Looking by political leanings, the majority of Democrats (57%) give the President positive ratings. Meanwhile, over nine in ten Republicans (93%) give him negative marks; a quarter of Independents (25%) give the President positive ratings, while three-quarters (75%) give him negative ratings.

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,543 adults surveyed online between September 10 and 17, 2014.  (Full results, including data tables, available here)

Direction of the country 
Feelings on the direction of the country have also fallen. After a slight improvement last month to one-third of Americans (32%) saying things in the country were going in the right direction and two-thirds (68%) saying things had gotten off on the wrong track, September brings a drop. Just under three in ten (29%) now say things are going in the right direction, while just over seven in ten (71%) say things are going off on the wrong track. This puts the sentiment that things in the country are going in the right direction at their lowest level in nearly a year.

Economic ratings  
General sentiments on economic issues also show varying rates of decline. Similar to overall job performance ratings, 29% of Americans give President Obama positive ratings on his handling of the economy and 71% give him negative ratings. This sentiment is only slightly down from the past two months, when three in ten (30%) gave him positive ratings for his handling of the economy and seven in ten (70%) gave him negative marks. Nevertheless, this is the lowest the President's ratings in this area have been since January, when 28% of U.S. adults gave him positive marks on the economy.

Looking at expectations for what the next year might bring for our nation's economy, just over two in ten say they expect the economy to improve in the coming year (22%) while just under three in ten say that they expect it to get worse (29%); nearly half (49%) say it will stay the same. In August, one-fourth of Americans (25%) said the economy would improve in the coming year and 29% said it would get worse.

What about the situation closer to home? When asked about what they're expecting for their household financial condition in the near future, just over two in ten Americans (22%) say they expect it to be better in the next six months, while over half (53%) say it will remain the same and one-quarter (25%) believe it will be worse. In August, 24% said their household's financial condition would be better in the next six months while 25% said it would be worse.