Oh, no! Obama job approval starts down again: Gallup

No White House ever pays any attention to public opinion polls because that could imply the president shapes his actions to be approved, which would be a preposterous thing to believe.

But if Barack Obama did pay attention to his polls numbers, which of course he doesn't for the aforementioned reason, he'd have to be a little disappointed this morning. Or at least somewhat puzzled. Now that we're less than 20 months from the 2012 E-Day.

Obama's job approval numbers are down again, even without a viable announced Republican opponent. Even with the unemployment rate down a smidge to 8.9% (it was 6.9% when Obama was elected). Even with 192,000 jobs created last month. Even with Joe Biden out of the country.

According to the latest Gallup numbers, Obama's weekly job approval number was 46% through Sunday.

That's the lowest it's been since mid-December, when Republican "hostage-takers" forced the Democrat to accept an extension of the Bush tax cuts that Obama now sees as a positive sign of bipartisan cooperation, not to mention job growth.

The current approval is even lower than the 47% Obama had after his murky State of the Union address that atypically provided no noticeable poll bounce.

He had been up at the 50% level into January, his first time up there since May. But then slid again to hover around 48% until the newest decline.

If the White House watched these figures, which as we said it doesn't, it might be distressed that the latest decline came among fellow Democrats, who still like the ex-state senator a lot but less of a lot than they used to:

79% of Democrats approve of Obama's job now. However, that's down from 84% in late January. His approval among independents dipped from 47% to 43%.

The Democrat's approval among Republicans, which couldn't conceivably get any worse, did anyway: Down another notch from 15% to 14%.

There's still plenty of time for a miraculous Obama recovery. An incumbent president's reelection chances are usually tied closely to voters' economic perceptions, centering on unemployment and gas prices. A separate Gallup survey finds Americans' economic optimism dipping again in recent weeks, at the same time that gas prices began increasing significantly. 

The good news for the Obama White House is that the 2010 approval averages show he remains wildly popular in the District of Columbia (84.4% approval) and in his home state of Hawaii (65.9%). That's seven of the 270 electoral votes he needs to keep living in the White House with his mother-in-law.

The bad news is that last year Obama's job approval went down in all 50 states.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photos: Mark Wilson / Getty Images (Obama walks toward plane to a Boston fundraiser and school, March 8, 2011); Pete Souza / White House.

Comments

[JB]

"The good news for the Obama White House is that the 2010 approval averages show he remains wildly popular in the District of Columbia (84.4% approval) and in his home state of Hawaii (65.9%). "

Haha. I love your sense of humor, Andrew.

(AM responds: :--)) )

[jdsc]

So Obama deserves better numbers just for showing up, exactly what has he done?

[Perplexed and Amused]

Well, remember, he's got California's 55 votes locked up too. And probably Illinois and New York State. You know, all the bankrupt states.

[Matt]

so what.... The only person to really care for those polls is Gallup and clearly the author of this article. Those polls are so skewed because they are based off a lan line phone call, and truly do not take in account the younger voters. Which of whom are Obama's core base.

And now my political tibbit :

So Whoopty fricken do I'd rather baby boomers focus on creating jobs than cutting deficits. You want to help our generation? STOP CUTTING EDUCATION.

[Reality Bites]

"...The bad news is that last year Obama's job approval went down in all 50 states."

Sorry, LA Times, but apparently you're not as well informed as Obama who claims we have 57 states.

Most likely he's got enough votes in the additional 7 mystery states to hijack the 2012 election.

[Mark Newman]

To :"The Finn"

My , do I see the green eyed monster in your post?

[Constitution_first]

Must be on account of his Nitrogen Footprint

[Jeff H]

What rocks are these pollsters turning over to find people who will actually go on record as thinking the empty suit in the Oval Office is doing a good job?

[Winston]

What this post and these results fail to capture is the fact that the decline in approval among Democrats reflects liberal frustration with Obama. The decline in approval among this group will hardly lead to a shift to any Republican candidate. The key statistic to watch is the approval rating among Independents.

[jgreene]

79% of Democrats APPROVE of Obama's performance in office? There is definitely something subversive in the Progressive, Socialist-Marxist DemocRAT Party.

These Democrats are not the Democrats of Truman, JFK or Johnson. The DemocRAT Party has been completely taken over by leftists who do not believe in the uniquely American Experience of the last 300 years since the days of the Colonies on the North American Continent.

We have to once again begin educating our children in the History of America, our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution and acknowledging the overwhelmingly good America has brought to the world.

Not perfect, but compared to any other Nation that has ever existed in the World we are a miracle and an example of how Freedom and Liberty with Free Markets and Individual Merit can bring the greatest wealth and good to citizens of a Democratic Republic.

[Barry Hussein]

What is amazing is that ANY independents could possibly think that the community organizer-in-chief is doing an adequate job. The stench of failure is so high that even Jimmy Carter is wearing nose plugs. And the second wave of the great recession combined with inflation is just about to hit America. Maybe a nice new war can help save our hapless leader by distracting us from our petty lives.