Rasmussen Reports...Obama's Approval "Falls Off The Cliff"

Between Debbie Wassserman Schultz' claim that the economy was turning around, and Obama's joke about shovel ready projects, if the President, and the progressive Democratic party leadership has proven anything over the past few days, it is that they are out of touch with the American people. And the American people are beginning to understand the progressive's distance from the voters.

There is a wealth of polling data coming from Rasmussen over the past few days, that signal problems for the President.  For example the chart below reflects the President's overall approval/disapproval ratings since his Bin Laden announcement.

You will notice that right after the announcement the President's approval (Blue line) took a bump up, but that advantage was quickly dissipated. For the next month, the approval/disapproval numbers remained close until the bad economic data and comments such as the ones described above began to take their toll. Today there is a nine percent spread between those who disapprove (54%) and those who approve (45%) of the President's performance.

What should be particularly troubling for the President is that 62% of independent voters disapprove of Obama's performance (37% approve).  Independents are likely to be the difference in the 2012.


Obama's approval index shows the same pattern. Approval index is the difference between those who strongly approve and strongly disapprove of the president's performance. This number is important because a voter with a strong opinion regarding a president's performance is more likely to work for or against the reelection of that president. Obama's approval index was at a -11 at the time if the Bin Laden mission.


It remained approximately in the same place until late last week when it fell to -19.  Just like the overall approval numbers, the independent voters show a strong negative feeling about Obama's performance with a -29 approval index.

Approval numbers are not the only statistic indicating voter frustration with President Obama.

• Almost two thirds of voters (65%) feel the country is going in the wrong direction

• 44% of voters blame the lousy economy on Obama (vs 49% who blame Bush). Last month it was only 39% blaming Obama, and 54% Bush.  Just as important is the fact that more independents (45%) blame Obama than Bush (44%).

• Only 28% of all voters and 23% of independents trust Obama on the economy more than they trust themselves.

• The President is seen as very liberal. 42% of voters see Obama as very liberal, 24% as somewhat liberal. Only 25% see him as a moderate. Independents generally agree, 39% see him as very liberal, 28% see him as somewhat liberal and only 23% see him as a moderate.  As US voters tend to be center-right, those very liberal numbers should be a concern for Obama's reelection team.

Putting it all together it is all bad news for the President. The only  good news (for him) is that there is a very long time between now and November 2012.  Over the next 17 months the Republicans need to keep pounding on the Presidential poor economic performance to ensure that America can elect a new president and turn itself around.