Obama Slips Further

It may be random noise, but it is interesting that, as the health care debate reaches a climax in Washington, both President Obama and Congressional Democrats appear to be losing ground with voters.
Today’s Rasmussen survey finds that 28 percent of likely voters strongly approve of President Obama’s performance, while 40 percent–a plurality–strongly disapprove. This generates an “approval index” of -12. There have been only two days since January when Obama’s approval index has been lower:
obama_approval_index_october_20_2009.jpg
Often the approval index bounces up or down by a point or two without any change in Obama’s broader approval rating. So it may be significant that in today’s survey, likely voters disapprove of Obama’s job performance by a 52-47 percent margin. That’s a little worse than what we’ve generally seen lately.
Likewise, the Republicans are pulling ahead on the generic Congressional preference survey. In today’s poll, Republican lead Democrats by five points, 42-37, the widest margin since early September.
All of this may be a blip on the screen, or it may be an incipient trend. One thing it can’t be is good news for the Democrats.

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