Poll Tracker

The survey revealed a racial split with one in three whites saying they were left with a less favorable view of the president, while only 10 percent of blacks saying the same thing.

Asked whether the white police officer who arrested Gates, Sgt. James Crowley, acted stupidly, as Obama suggested during a July 22 news conference, 31 percent of respondents said yes, while 54 percent said he did not.

The poll also asked whether Gates acted stupidly. Fifty-three percent said yes, while 30 percent did not.

The poll found that a majority of black and white respondents believed the so-called "beer summit" Obama hosted with Gates and Crowley at the White House on July 31 was a good idea.

A Pew Research Center survey of 1,129 adults conducted July 22-26 drew a similarly harsh assessment of Obama's involvement in the Gates case.

Based on what people heard about the incident, 41 percent of those polled disapproved of the president's handling of the situation, compared with 29 percent who said they approved.

Interviews during the first two days of the survey period found 53 percent of whites approving of Obama's job performance. That slipped to 46 percent among whites interviewed as the Gates story played out across the nation. Whites disapproved of Obama's performance in the case by a better than 2-to-1 margin, 45 percent to 22 percent.