POLITICS DEPT:
President Obama's approval numbers continue to plummet, according to an ABC/Wash Post poll:
" Nearly 60 percent of American voters say they lack faith in President Barack Obama, according to a public opinion poll published on Tuesday. The results of the Washington Post/ABC News poll are a reversal of what voters said at the start of Obama's presidency 18 months ago when about 60 percent expressed confidence in his decision making."
His overall approval rating stands at just 43%. No need to overly fear him, Republicans...
Some in the reporting today harp on the fact that Obama still has higher numbers than congressional Democrats or Republicans. But, folks...right now, doesn't matter. In the 2010 elections, voters will have to choose, not between Obama and a Republican, but between a Democratic congressional/senate candidate and a Republican. And voters who are unhappy and want change aren't likely to vote for a representative of the party in power. There's plenty of time, meanwhile, for Republicans to get in better shape for 2012, when Obama will be on the ballot...
Meanwhile, even Democrats and liberals in the blogosphere admit that ordinary Dem voters just aren't getting enthused:
"...the White House and Democrats have been engaged in a full-blown effort for weeks now to persuade voters that the midterm elections could represent a return to GOP rule. The White House and Dems have made this case every which way: They've charged that Republicans will again rule as stooges of Big Oil and Wall Street. They've claimed that Republicans will rain a blizzard of subpoenas on the White House if they take control of Congress. They've framed the elections as a choice between the policies that got us into this mess and those that are getting us out of it. And so forth. Yet rank and file Dems don't appear to care that much. The latest polling shows that the "enthusiasm gap" remains the same, with Republicans far more excited about voting than Dems are. In other words, Dem scaremongering about the GOP takeover doesn't yet appear to be revving up Dems to turn out this fall."
There's certainly plenty of evidence that's the case.
In California, a state the Democrats have dominated in recent years, new polls (by SurveyUSA) show Republican Carly Fiorina leading Barbara Boxer in that state's senate race...
And Meg Whitman leads Democrat Jerry Brown in the governor's race.
