President Barack Obama will lay out his agenda for the year on Tuesday night before a nation increasingly worried about his abilities, dissatisfied with the economy and fearful for the country’s future, a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds.

Since the rise of modern polling in the 1930s, only George W. Bush has begun his sixth year in the White House on rockier ground than Mr. Obama.

According to a CNN Poll of Polls compiled on Monday which averages the most recent non-partisan, live operator national surveys, Obama’s approval rating stood at  44%, with 51% of Americans giving a thumbs down to Obama’s performance in the White House.

Obama’s numbers tumbled after a summer of controversy over the Edward Snowden intelligence leaks and congressional investigations into IRS targeting of conservative political groups. Then came October, and the politically charged botched rollout of Obamacare, his signature domestic policy achievement.

Coupled with legislative setbacks, many pundits labeled 2013 the worst year of Obama’s presidency. And for the first time since taking over at the White House in 2009, a majority of the public surveyed disapproved of his job performance.

….read more at CNN