If the President and his political team were looking for an approval bounce from the troika of the Copenhagen Climate summit, the Nobel Peace speech and "the Oprah effect" from her Christmas special, it appears they are sifting through coal and ashes instead.
For the second day in a row, the Rasmussen index of strongly inclined voters has hit startling new lows:The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 23% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -19. (note: it was -16 on Saturday's release.)
Prior to the past two days, the Approval Index had never fallen below -15 during Obama's time in office
For months, the trend has been for around 30% of the country to strongly approve of the President while about 40% strongly disapprove. Most of this recent bleeding has been at the expense of Obama's formerly strong support. He is well below 50% in his own party related to strong approval:
The 23% who Strongly Approve matches the lowest level of enthusiasm yet recorded. Just 41% of Democrats Strongly Approve while 69% of Republicans Strongly Disapprove.
Perhaps the worst news for Obama can be found in some of the internals. He is getting shellacked among independent voters and on those who consider fiscal policy (the deficit) key, he is literally at MINUS 80! He is also starting to "own this economy" among voters as well:
Among voters not affiliated with either major party, 21% Strongly Approve and 49% Strongly Disapprove. Among those who consider the economy to be the most important issue, just 26% Strongly Approve of the President's performance while 39% Strongly Disapprove.
Among those who consider fiscal policy issues the most important, just 1% Strongly Approve and 81% Strongly Disapprove.
Some other numbers seem to point to flaws in the idea that Obama and his liberal policies are good for the middle class, as he is doing poorly with those income earners. He is now under water with the young voters also:
The President's Approval Index rating is -2 among voters under 30 and -29 among senior citizens. From an income perspective, the President's ratings are weakest among those who earn $40,000 to $100,000 annually.
One can assume that the loss of younger voters has to do with the surge in Afghanistan and with dithering on Copenhagen. It would be reasonable to assume that many of these liberals will return to the strong approval camp at some point. Having said that, this continued erosion is becoming pervasive.
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