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When a President starts to move through his agenda at a lighting pace and makes more press conferences, you can be certain that something is up—or down. President Barak Obama is seeing his job approval rating slip just as he tries to take on Iran, Health Care and Climate Change all at a record speed.
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows that 31% of the nation’s voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-three percent (33%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -2. That matches the lowest level yet recorded (see trends). [Rasmussen Reports: Daily Presidential Tracking Poll]
This is newsworthy only because it’s beginning to indicate that the President is not as popular in his policies as he once was. Though he may still be personally popular, the more this number goes down, the more the press will be able to feel safe in finding negative things to say about him.
The press is an amplifier. While the polls are high, everything seems great and the polls continue to stay high. As the polls fall, more stories about difficulties begin to emerge to drive them down further.
Look to see if the press starts to allow more critique of the plans Pres. Obama puts forth—one first step would be to get on the bandwagon of the current moves to force Congress to actually read what it votes on before it puts it to a vote. I mean, it’s only logical, and would be an easy thing to get on board with, since it doesn’t mean you have to change your vote!
It is despicable that the politicians in Washington have for decades not allowed time for bills they require congressmen to vote on to be read. The failure is obviously do to the politicians overall as it is obvious both parties have had the opportunity to do the honorable thing and both have failed to do so.
@John: You’re right– it’s bad no matter who the party in charge is. I don’t know if there’s a good solution– how would you verify that the representative read it? I think you’d have to make bills shorter.
There’s a good reason why Obama’s approval rating is slipping, and it’s not because he’s too liberal or socialist or insufficiently Christian. The right wing voters hated him from the start and nothing he does or fails to do will change their minds.
The dropping ratings come from his abandonment of the Democratic Party base. Instead of dealing with climate change, he is celebrating a bill that is little more than a big giveaway to the dirty coal industry and the Wall Street manipulators who will control the “market” in cap and trade. Instead of fighting for health care for all Americans, he gave in to the insurance companies and big pharma as a first step and now it is clear we will get a health care bill that will cost too much and do too little. Instead of ending the war in Iraq, we are supposed to believe that leaving the cities (however temporarily) and moving to gargantuan bases in the countryside is real progress.
The left is thoroughly disgusted with Obama already and those who supported him because they hoped he would be a real Democrat or had some real integrity are realizing that he is more like a moderate Republican than a Democrat.
@Charles: Actually, Gallup has a poll out today that states that the country disagrees with you (More Americans See the Democratic Party as “Too Liberal”). The article states that this hasn’t been the case since the 1994 elections where Democrats lost on historic levels.
It’s hard to generalize a populace when so few actually go out to vote compared to who is surveyed. As well, in this election there were Republicans, Libertarians, etc. that voted for the President because of the color of his skin or a change from Bush. There is obviously dislike for the President on both sides of the aisle– albeit for different reasons.
I think the voters are just beginning to relaize that Obama does not have a magic wand. He can keep talking and trying to keep everyone happy, but when the money runs out and people are faced with hard choices – they’re going to start looking for someone to blame. Only question is, will that day come before the 2012 elections or after?
@Ling: I can’t remember a Presidential Candidate that made as many promises to as many different people as President Obama, and as the light of day gets shone on some of these things, people are finally waking up. It usually takes a while for the honeymoon to get over.
Like I said, you know something’s up when the government starts to move faster.
When Chip Reid and Helen Thomas go sideways on Obama, you know the honeymoon may have seen its best days.
That happened today. Stay tuned.
Cathy
.-= Cathy´s last blog ..On Getting Out of a Funk =-.
CORRECTION: I thought that looked odd when I proofed it…they went sideways on the WH policies, in a news briefing w/Gibbs today.
I can’t even blame the late hour, since it’s only 9:30 in CA. YIKES