This will go up at some point, but the President is not having a good week.
Yeah, a little sparse, but I wanted the post on Twitter. I suppose that I could have just Tweeted it, but I already published it, so: oh, well. It’s going to be interesting to see if Gallup will also show a drop: in some ways, it’d be worse than Rasmussen’s. Gallup’s polling has been a lot less volatile over time.
Crossposted to RedState.
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 32% of the nation’s voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-four percent (34%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -2. That’s the President’s lowest rating to date and the first time the Presidential Approval Index has fallen below zero for Obama (see trends).
Oh, it’ll go back up tomorrow or the next day. That is the nature of these things. Meanwhile
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.
[UPDATE] Rasmussen finally put up an article.
So, last month I posted Rasmussen’s report that the Republicans were back to being trusted more than Democrats on four critical topics, and trusted more and/or tied on five. It got a surprising amount of play, given that I hadn’t really thought all that much about it when I wrote it. Besides, it was one month, compared to a very, very, very bad month for Republicans; the numbers could very easily shift by the next month.
| Jun-09 | May-09 | ||||||
| Issue | Democrats | GOP | Diff | Democrats | GOP | Diff | Shift |
| Health Care | 47% | 37% | 10 | 53% | 35% | 18 | 8 |
| Education | 44% | 37% | 7 | 49% | 36% | 13 | 6 |
| Social Security | 43% | 37% | 6 | 48% | 39% | 9 | 3 |
| Abortion | 41% | 41% | – | 41% | 41% | – | – |
| Economy | 39% | 45% | (6) | 44% | 43% | 1 | 7 |
| Taxes | 39% | 44% | (5) | 41% | 47% | (6) | (1) |
| Iraq | 37% | 45% | (8) | 41% | 43% | (2) | 6 |
| Nat’l Security | 36% | 51% | (15) | 41% | 48% | (7) | 8 |
| Gov’t Ethics | 29% | 35% | (6) | 40% | 29% | 11 | 17 |
| Immigration | 29% | 43% | (14) | 36% | 37% | (1) | 13 |
Continue reading June’s Rasmussen trust numbers versus May’s.
[UPDATE] And welcome, Weekly Standard readers.
[UPDATE] Welcome, Instapundit readers. Taking a trip, soon? Murtha’s here to help!
Examining Rasmussen’s trust-on-issues numbers from month to month is interesting enough, but I was interested in the long term trends. So I put together this chart comparing this month’s numbers with those of last October’s*:
| October 2008 | May 2009 | ||||||
| Issue | Dem | GOP | Diff | Dem | GOP | Diff | Cum Shift |
| Economy | 51% | 38% | 13 | 44% | 43% | 1 | (12) |
| Govt Ethics | 40% | 30% | 10 | 40% | 29% | 11 | 1 |
| National Sec. | 47% | 44% | 3 | 41% | 48% | (7) | (10) |
| Education | 53% | 34% | 19 | 49% | 36% | 13 | (6) |
| Healthcare | 54% | 34% | 20 | 53% | 35% | 18 | (2) |
| Taxes | 47% | 42% | 5 | 41% | 47% | (6) | (11) |
| Iraq | 47% | 42% | 5 | 41% | 43% | (2) | (7) |
| Social Security | 49% | 37% | 12 | 48% | 39% | 9 | (3) |
| Abortion | 47% | 38% | 9 | 41% | 41% | – | (9) |
| Immigration | 40% | 38% | 2 | 36% | 37% | (1) | (3) |
Continue reading Rasmussen and the quietly rusting Democratic advantage.
Rasmussen has a poll out that argues against the “people hate Congress but love their own congressman” meme. Essentially, that explanation is beaten out 2-to-1 by “the fix is in:”
…23% believe members of Congress get reelected because they do a good job representing their constituents.
However, 50% believe the high reelection rates result from election rules that are “rigged to benefit members of Congress.” It is worth noting that the word “rigged” is a strong term included in this survey question. The fact that half the nation’s voters believe the election rules are “rigged” is a testament to the high levels of distrust in the country today.
28% aren’t sure, which is probably too high a number for comfort either way.
Continue reading Half the country thinks that Congress has rigged the system.
Those numbers above represent Favorable/Unfavorable/Don’t Know in the latest Rasmussen poll, and while Rasmussen itself notes that:
At the time President Obama nominated her for the Homeland Security post in early December, 43% had no opinion of her. Since that time, her favorable ratings have remained constant, but her negatives have increased. That’s fairly typical for politicians as they get better known.
…it’s still not what you would call ‘good’ news – at least, if you’re the sort of person who worries about whether people are still liking Secretary* Napolitano enough. For added amusement, check out this Hill article (“Napolitano splits the GOP“) and try to figure out, precisely, how the GOP has been ‘split’ on the Napolitano controversy…
Moe Lane
PS: President Obama tapping Napolitano for Homeland Security probably ensured that the GOP kept the Arizona Senate seat in 2010 – but I never really thought that it might wreck her career, too…
*Have we come up with a way to easily distinguish between the Departments of Homeland Security and Health & Human Services? Are we calling the latter DHSS or HSS DHHS or HHS now? I should know this; really, I should.
I would quibble with the results here: it implies that the notion that we’ve already done too much already to fix the economy isn’t a legitimate answer. Still, this report will not be welcome news for the administration:
52% Worry Government Will Do Too Much to Fix Economy
[snip]
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 52% of the nation’s Likely Voters now worry that the government will do too much. That’s up from 50% a month ago and 43% in mid-February. It’s the highest level of concern measured since Barack Obama was elected president.
The number who worry that the government will do too little has fallen sharply to 31%. That’s down nine points from 40% a month ago and 12 points from 43% two months ago.
…which is only fitting. When the economy went into a tailspin last fall, the current administration presented itself as the best choice to repair our financial problems. When they were elected, the expectation was that they would actually engage in activities that would repair our financial problems, and in a nonpartisan, inclusive manner. Instead, we got: Never Waste A Crisis. I Won. The Democratic Party’s Pork Wish List. It’s Not Our Fault. Tax Hikes On The Lower Class*. The Great Expanding Budget Deficit. Let’s Repeat That Last One Again. One More Time, So That It Sinks In. Continue reading Rasmussen: Majority of country worries government will do too much.
The Democrats are not in as good a position as their position two weeks ago might have suggested.
Larry Sabato has done the first half of his anaylsis of the governor’s races for 2010 (the Democratic half): the basic results are below.
Continue reading Sabato’s Handicapping the Governors’ races, Part One.
[UPDATE] Hi to Ace of Spades & Hot Air readers.
“Republicans Take Small Lead.”
I’m not really criticizing Rasmussen, here: they have to be cautious. And it will almost certainly flip back and forth from last week’s Dem +3 and this week’s Rep +2. Nonetheless… you do have to wonder just how badly we are getting hurt by actually sticking to principles for a change.
Crossposted to RedState.
This week.
Contra Wizbang and Roger Kimball, this is actually the latest estimate of Mark Zandi, not the Obama administration itself. What the Obama administration is merely doing is trying to lower the expectations of their debt bill:
WASHINGTON (Reuters)- President Barack Obama’s aides warned Americans on Sunday not to expect instant miracles from the $787 billion economic stimulus bill he will sign this week, but said it would help eventually.
[I’m snipping the nonsense about how this was Obama’s first major legislative victory. The sentence should more properly read: “It was the legislature’s first major victory over his young presidency.” – ML]
“There will be signs of activity very quickly,” David Axelrod, the White House senior adviser, said on “Fox News Sunday.” “But it’s going to take time for that to show up in the statistics. The president has said it’s likely to get worse before it gets better.”
Continue reading Jobs ‘saved’ by ‘stimulus’ reduced to 2.5 million.
