Tell me again about the great Democratic realignment.

For the first time, Obama’s overall job approval rating has fallen below 50 percent (to 47 percent). In addition, for the first time since Sept. 2007, a plurality (45 percent) sees the Democratic Party in a negative light. And the percentage believing the country is on the wrong track (55 percent) is at its highest level in the Obama presidency…

The entire Republican Party, moreover, continues to maintain a net-negative favorable/unfavorable rating, 28 percent to 43 percent.

But, for the first time in more than two years, the Democratic Party also now holds a net-negative rating, 35 percent to 45 percent.

By comparison, the conservative libertarian-leaning Tea Party movement has a net-positive 41 percent to 23 percent score in the poll.

We’ll get to the tea party in a minute, but first health care: 32/47, another new low, with a plurality saying for the first time that they prefer the status quo to ObamaCare (44/41). Quoth pollster Bill McInturff: “This is the survey where the wheels came off the bus.” Honestly, though: The wheels were never really on. Note the ceiling over time:

They never cracked 40 percent and now they’re so far gone that it’s essentially become a suicide mission. In fact, for the second day in a row, the only real bright spot on health care is the number that would have supported the now-dead Medicare buy-in. 58 percent say thumbs up, 32 percent say thumbs down. Let me know if and when someone dares to poll that question while listing potential adverse consequences or trade-offs.

As for the tea-party numbers, we already knew they were more popular than the GOP, but now, thanks to O-Care, they’ve lapped the Democrats too. Ironclad proof of a surge in fiscally conservative populism across the nation? Sure, to some extent. But this helps explain it too:

The pro-tea-party megaphone at Fox is vastly larger than its hardcore anti counterpart at MSNBC. Although even MSNBC’s eleven viewers are more ambivalent about the movement than I would have guessed:

Yet looking inside those numbers, more than three-quarters (76 percent) of those who say FOX News is where they get their news see the Tea Party movement positively, versus just 4 percent who see it negatively.

That’s a stark contrast to how viewers of the competing cable networks CNN and MSNBC see the movement. More of those viewers have a negative opinion of it (36 percent) than a positive one (24 percent).

More teabagging jokes for Olby and Maddow, stat. Meanwhile, the GOP’s within two on the generic ballot, the closest its been in an NBC poll since a month before Bush’s reelection in 2004. (Another poll out today shows Republicans leading on the ballot.) There’s a partial explanation for that too:

I’ll leave you with this post at Newsbusters showcasing a flustered Chris Matthews as he tries to explain away the tea party movement’s surprisingly strong numbers. Exit quotation:

MATTHEWS: Did you read the question though? It basically said, “Here’s a group of conservatives who get together who are concerned about high taxes.” Well what’s wrong with that?

TODD: That’s right.

MATTHEWS: It isn’t a bunch of screaming, crazy people yelling, like you see at these parties.