Change: Obama’s polling hits new low on economy, whether country is headed in right direction

Malaise.

Registered voters nationally are not satisfied with how President Barack Obama is handling the nation’s economy. According to this McClatchy-Marist Poll, four in ten voters — 40% — approve of how the president is dealing with the country’s economy while nearly six in ten — 57% — disapprove. Only 3% are unsure. Mr. Obama’s approval rating on the economy is the lowest of his presidency. His previous low was last September when just 41% gave him a thumbs-up on the issue…

There has been a change among Democrats and independents on this question. While 71% of Democrats approve of how the president is handling the economy, 27% disapprove. This is a 12 percentage point increase in the proportion of Democrats who disapprove since January. Among independent voters, 34% approve while more than six in ten — 63% — disapprove. Here, too, there has been a jump in the proportion of voters who are dissatisfied with how Mr. Obama is dealing with the economy. In January, half — 50% — shared this view.

His approval came back to near even in January at 44/48 but that was at a moment when 54 percent thought the worst was behind us economically. A few months of tepid growth and soaring gas prices later and 57 percent now think the worst is yet to come. Conventional wisdom has it that he’s a favorite to win if the economy’s improving come election day, but every period of false-start optimism like we’re seeing here weakens that logic. At some point, the blather about “recovery summer” and “recovery winter” will take on such a boy-who-cried-wolf overtone that he’ll need a loooong stretch of significant improvement before the election to convince voters it’s for real and we’re back on track.

Speaking of which:

Twenty-one percent (21%) of Likely U.S. Voters say the country is heading in the right direction, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey taken the week ending Sunday, April 24. It’s the fourth week in a row that the measurement has gone down, with confidence in the nation’s course now reaching the lowest point of the Obama presidency…

Leading up to Obama’s inauguration, the number of voters who felt the country was heading in the right direction remained below 20%. The week of his inauguration, voter confidence rose to 27% and climbed into the low to mid-30s until mid-May of that year. Since then, belief that the country is heading in the right direction has been trending lower.

Re-read that last part. His high-water mark among likely voters who think the country’s on the right track is around 35 percent and he hasn’t been there in fully two years, even during the recent ephemeral spurt of optimism. His numbers are also at an all-time low in Pennsylvania, where 52 percent now say he doesn’t deserve reelection. Honestly, after blowing almost $800 billion on the stimulus and ramming through the persistently unpopular boondoggle we knows as ObamaCare, he should consider it a bona fide achievement that his numbers aren’t worse. What else could he do to alienate voters that he hasn’t done? Pass amnesty, maybe? Send ground troops into Libya?

For your viewing pleasure, click the image below and check watch the reaction at Sean Duffy’s townhall when the left’s favorite Keynesian is mentioned. I guess we know who’s winning that rap battle.

• Bobby Jindal: Paternalistic, big-government liberalism is the biggest loser here
• Chris Christie: “I’ll be here to welcome” Obama when he comes to tour the NJ coast again next week
• MSNBC consensus: Obama’s speech was historic, amazing, “one of the best of his presidency”

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