Barack Obama's job approval ratings have sunk to 46 percent in Rasmussen's poll. Fifty-three percent of respondents dissaprove. Of greater importance because of the proximity of next year's mid-term elections, Rasmussen's generic congressional ballot shows Republicans besting Democrats by six percentage points, with independents swinging heavily toward the GOP.

This is very interesting. With all of the favorable media coverage of Barack Obama in particular and Democrats in general one would expect the Mr. Obama and the Demcorats to enjoy very high favorability ratings. Also, we would expect the Democrats to lead the Republicans by 30 percentage points or more on a generic ballot.

Where the Democrats may have slipped up is in attacking folks like Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Sarah Palin.

Who is Glenn Beck? He is a political commentator with a very small but vocal following. He holds no position of influence or leadership within the Republican party.

Who is Sean Hannity? See Glenn Beck above. Same thing applies to him.

Who is Rush Limbaugh? He is like Beck and Hannity. They are commentators with small but vocal followings who hold no real influence in the Republican party decision making process.

Now who is Sarah Palin? She is the former governor of Alaska. She holds no political office nor does she hold a leadership position in the Republican party. She quit her duties in Alaska. As such, she can never run for office again. Her opponent in any election would have a field day criticizing her abdicating her duties as Alaska governor in mid stream.

Apparently the American public is smart enough to understand these things and to see through the media hype. I think the message here that the American people are trying to send with these polls is the Democrats need to focus on real issues and not minor ones like health care and stop wasting time demonizing figures like those I mentioned above who hold no real political influence.

You really think the problem is how the Dems have attacked the Republican/Conservative talking heads? That's a real stretch.

I think it's more likely that they see an incompetent, anti-American, pseudo Marxist President looking for imperial power along with a like minded Democrat majority and an economy that's tanking along with rampant unemployment and it's scaring the bejesus out of them.

Asdf,

I do think the economy is the biggest issue right now. While the economy is doing well, it may be possible to say to someone something to the effect of "while you currently have a good paying job your neighbors and other members of your community do not. Unless you vote for me, you will lose your job too." A version of this strategy worked for Bill Clinton back in 1992. Something like it might work today.

Today we are constantly being treated with media reports about how the economy is improving. Telling someone the economy is improving when he does not have a job or his business is hanging on by a thread will likely come accross as insulting. I think this is what we are seeing. Obama's surrogates in the media are telling us the economy is getting better yet the economy is still shedding jobs at the fastest rate since the Great Depression. These polls would tend to suggest that the electorate is smarter than Mr. Obama and his media surrogates give them credit for.

Consider the fact that Obama and his minions believe that there is little intelligence south of their insulated assembly of Ivy League brainiacs and resident Maoists. Add to that the fact that many of the so-called unwashed masses, not really knowing anything about the guy, voted for him anyway. So, he believes that he can fool all of the fools all of the time.

Although it's true that most folks don't pay as much attention as they should and are certainly not as informed as they should be, they are smart enough and informed enough to know when things are not going well in their lives and the lives of their families and friends. And THAT has caused an ever so slight awakening and much concern. Even the Government run press can’t obscure that.

Once negative events get people’s attention, it’s harder for the Narcissist in Chief to pull the wool over the eyes of the electorate that he most certainly holds in contempt.

Let’s just hope it’s not too late to do anything about it.

I'd have to take a look at local polling before I change my prediction that Republicans will not retake either house of Congress in 2010. Conservatives are extremely lucky that the Democrats are in control during a crisis, otherwise there would be no way in hell they'd be doing any damage to the current majorities. Republicans face an intransigent demographic crisis. They can't change the fact that 40% of the electorate is non-white and over 50% is female, and that they have been stabbing themselves in the neck repeatedly by further alienating these groups.

I firmly believe that if Obushma had fought for reform instead of a continuation (and in many cases an escalation) of Bush regime policies that he would be less popular than he was at inauguration, but still more popular than he is now. He has failed miserably in his first year with the exception of Sotomayor, a good pick and a win for civil liberties purists, if you define success as not giving huge subsidies to incompetent, avaricious corporatists and banksters and not escalating unnecessary wars. The "health" (aka for-profit medical cartel subsidy) bill going through congress is an abomination which doesn't help his numbers with any group (except medical cartels).

asdf,

What are three executive orders or policies that have been supported by the President that you believe are Marxist or socialist? I can see some of these policies being characterized as neo-feudalist or fascist, but Marxist or socialist? Maybe this hinges on semantics, but I don't see where this hatred for Obushma and these characterizations truly stem.

Edit above: I believed that the Bush bailouts were a textbook case of fascist policy implementation, a union between big government and her favored sons and proud creations, the corporations. Those policies were continued and escalated in the Obushma administration. However, I don't believe that the Bush administration or Obushma administration could be reasonably characterized as Nazi administrations.