Our Melting President

From American Thinker
By Bruce Walker

Slowly, methodically, consistently, the reliable Rasmussen Poll has been tracking the most vital numbers of the Obama Presidency. General, soft numbers like "Do you approve of the way the president is handlings his job?" really mean nothing. In times of crisis, most people will answer "yes." This is particularly true when a young articulate president who is splattered over every single magazine in every grocery checkout line with happy photos with his wife and kids, and when every tough question -- both of them -- in his press conferences is simply ignored.

It is not the soft, fluffy feelings about Obama that really matter. It is the intense feelings about him. Obama began his presidency with a lot of very enthusiastic support. About forty-five percent of Americans "strongly approved" of the job he was doing, while an anemic fifteen percent of Americans "strongly disapproved" of the job he was doing. In a couple of months, that gap between the "strongly approve" and "strongly disapprove" closed to a gap of between eight and ten points. The number who strongly approved glided down into the high thirties, while the number who strongly disapproved just about doubled, into the low thirties.

From April to mid-June, Obama seemed to have a fairly comfortable margin between his strong supporters and strong opponents, sometimes closing to a point or less and sometimes widening to about ten points. But the last couple of weeks have not been kind. Several days, the percentage of Americans who strongly disapproved of Obama was actually greater than the percentage of Americans who strongly approved of Obama. As of June 30, the number of strongly disapprove is actually two points greater than the number who strongly approve.

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