Obama drops, Perry surges in new poll

President Obama's approval rating hit another new low, and Rick Perry has surged to the lead in the 2012 Republican presidential race, according to a NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released Tuesday.

After what could be considered the worst summer of his presidency politically, Obama's approval rating is at a new low of just 44 percent in the NBC/WSJ poll. Just 37 percent approve of his handling of the economy--a six-point drop since July. The poll's margin of error is 3 percent.

But those numbers pale in comparison to the dismal numbers Americans give Congress. According to the poll, 82 percent disapprove of the job Congress is doing--the highest number ever recorded in the poll. In what could be a hint of a major shift in political fortunes for sitting lawmakers, 47 percent of those polled say they'd like to give a "new person" a chance in the upcoming election, compared to 42 percent who would like to stick with their current representative.

Meanwhile, the race for the Republican nomination increasingly appears to be a race between Perry and Mitt Romney. According to the poll, the Texas governor, who entered the race last month, now leads Romney, 38 percent to 23 percent in the GOP race. No other nominee moves beyond single digits, including Ron Paul (9 percent), Michele Bachmann (8 percent) and Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain (5 percent).

While Perry appears to be the candidate to beat in the GOP field, he's not as strong as Romney or a "generic" Republican when pitted directly against Obama. According to the poll, Perry would lose to Obama in a projected match-up, 42 percent to 47 percent.

By comparison, Romney and Obama are statistically tied, 45 percent to 46 percent. Meanwhile Obama would lose to a "generic" GOP candidate, 40 percent to 44 percent.