Second look at the “war on women”?

Just 41 percent of Americans approve of the job Mr. Obama is doing as president, according to the poll, conducted from March 7 to 11. Another 47 percent disapprove of his performance, up from 41 percent last month.

Mr. Obama’s approval rating was 50 percent last month.

The average U.S. price of a gallon of gasoline has jumped 12 cents over the past two weeks. The poll found that most Americans, 54 percent, believe gas prices are something a president can do a lot about…

Mr. Obama’s job rating on the economy remains about the same as it was last month – 39 percent approve, while 54 percent disapprove.

The bad news? Even with his job approval headed down the toilet, O still leads all four GOP candidates head to head. The good news? If CBS is right about gas prices weighing down his ratings, and they probably are, then The One’s hand might be forced on approving the Keystone pipeline if prices don’t start to ease soon. Go read John McCormack’s post at the Standard, too, arguing that the contraception fight isn’t hurting the GOP as much as the conventional wisdom would have you believe. Hard to say if these numbers bear that out. Obama leads all Republicans among women by double digits even as his overall numbers crumble — but then there’s this:

When you ask people, “Should religious employers be required to cover contraception?”, 61 percent will tell you yes. When you add the magic words “opt out,” you get the data set you see above. Makes me wonder how closely most voters are following the contraception debate in the first place. If slight tweaks in wording can turn the numbers upside down, the public’s probably not paying close attention, which may mean there’s fertile ground for Democratic “war on women” demagoguery. That moronic “permission slip” on Obama’s Tumblr account was no accident.

Oh, almost forgot: Another trillion-dollar deficit this year. Probably no poll damage to him from that, though. Yawn.