Oh my: Obama hits 50% job approval in Gallup

Alternate headline: “Time for the daily ‘Obama’s polling hits new low’ post.” Watching his numbers crater as the ObamaCare debacle drags on reminds me of the end of “The Last Crusade,” where Indy can’t resist reaching for the grail even though he’s about to fall into the crevasse. The One needs a kindly father figure, preferably with a brogue of some sort, to look him in the eye and say, “Indiana? Let it go.”

Teddy could have been that father figure. Ah well. Context from the LA Times:

Should the slide continue, Obama will by no means be the first president to slide below 50% in the Gallup Poll, which has been tracking public approval of presidents since Harry S. Truman.

But Obama has reached his new low more quickly than most of his predecessors did, according to Gallup. The percentage of people voicing disapproval for the job the president is performing also stands at a near-high of 43%.

Slipping below 50% before November of the first year in office would represent “the third-fastest drop” since World War II, Gallup reports. Republican Gerald Ford slipped below 50% in his third month as president, Democrat Bill Clinton during his fourth month.

It took Republican President Eisenhower five years to fall below 50% in the public’s eye, Gallup notes. It took both Republican George Bushes about three years. It took Democrat Lyndon Johnson and Republican Richard Nixon more than two years.

Rasmussen’s got him at 50 percent today, too. Exit question: How much of a bounce will The One get from the “Do it for Teddy!” push on health care? He’s delivering one of the eulogies at Friday’s ubiquitously televised memorial service so he’s bound to pick up some residual goodwill points. But enough to rebound on ObamaCare? Democrat Mary Landrieu told a crowd at lunch yesterday — after the news about Kennedy had broken — that she probably won’t vote for a public option. If Camelot can’t get the Blue Dogs to hedge on the very day of Kennedy’s passing, how much influence will it have really?

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