Aunt Agatha and I have been monitoring the Rasmussen poll, which follows the opinion of likely voters as they turn away from President Obama in droves.
But it’s worth noting that the Gallup poll, which tracks adults (without regard to voting record), has news just as important, if not as dramatic:
President Barack Obama’s most recent weekly job approval rating is 52% for the seven-day period ending on Sunday, similar to the 54% reading from the previous week but down significantly from 59% a month ago. His average disapproval rating during the past week is 41%.
In June, Obama maintained approval ratings in the 60% range, roughly twice his disapproval rating. Obama still enjoys a double-digit gap between his average approval and average disapproval scores — 11 percentage points for the week of Aug. 17-23. However, that buffer has shrunk considerably since mid-July, due to diminished support across the board.
As of today, his 3-day rolling average dropped to 51-42, a gap of only 9%.
Even more important, in my opinion, he’s losing a lot of ground among Independents, generous (read clueless) Republicans, and geezers, constituents who contributed significantly to his 53% of the vote.
Gallup concludes:
Gallup’s weekly average approval ratings for President Obama, each based on more than 3,500 interviews with U.S. national adults, document a clear decline in Americans’ support for his job performance over the past month. This is a broad-based decline, not focused among specific demographic or political groups. However, as Obama’s average approval figure descends closer to 50%, his rating from more groups is falling below that symbolic threshold. Early in his administration, only Republicans and conservatives registered less than 50% approval for the job he was doing. Since July, the category also includes non-Hispanic whites, seniors, upper- and upper-middle-income Americans, political independents, married adults, weekly churchgoers, and those living in the South. The groups doing the most to keep Obama’s job rating above 50% — with 60% or higher approval levels — include 18- to 29-year-olds, blacks, Hispanics, postgraduates, adults earning less than $12,000 per year, Democrats, liberals, moderates, infrequent and non-churchgoers, and adults who are not married.
There’s Obama’s core: punks, eggheads, welfare cases, left wing nutjobs, the godless, and blacks and Latinos. Good for them for finding a candidate they can get behind—but I wonder if it’s a coalition that can hold together for another election.
