1 1 <p>Through next Monday, the presidential blog will tale a breather as <em>PollTrack </em>devotes is coverage to the analysis of competitive 2010 US Senate races. We'll be posting up at least two posts per day in the <em>WRITING ON THE WALL </em>blog tracking these races.</p> 2010-02-09T10:30:28-05:00 1381 false true 2010-02-09T10:30:28-05:00 2010-02-09T10:30:28-05:00 1 1 <p>President Obama's approval rating has taken a serious dive this week, suggesting that his modest State of the Union bounce was very short lived. His aggregate approval rating nows stands at <em><strong>46.3%</strong></em>. Even more alarming for the president is the sharp rise of his disapproval number, now at an all-time high of 49%.</p> 2010-02-08T01:09:08-05:00 1380 false true 2010-02-08T01:09:08-05:00 2010-02-08T10:36:40-05:00 1 1 <p>The public often forms opinion based on the overall contours of an issue--rather than inside-the beltway details--an observation that seems particularly true of its reaction to health care reform. A <a href="http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1478/political-iq-quiz-knowledge-filibuster-debt-colbert-steele">Pew Research poll</a> reveals that just 32% of Americans know the health care reform bill received no support from Republican Senators; just 26% know that 60 votes are needed to break a filibuster in the Senate. And, as other polls have confirmed, even fewer understand the basic provisions of a bill that is both cumbersome and has remained mostly unexplained to the American public.</p> 2010-01-31T10:37:33-05:00 1357 false true 2010-02-05T13:47:36-05:00 2010-02-05T13:47:36-05:00 1 1 <p>A new Gallup survey reports that "three U.S. states in the Deep South -- Alabama (49%), Mississippi (48%), and Louisiana (48%) -- had the greatest percentage of residents self-identifying as conservatives in 2009. Aside from the District of Columbia, which has the greatest proportion of liberals, conservatives outnumbered liberals in every state." <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/125480/Ideology-Three-Deep-South-States-Conservative.aspx">For more, click here.</a> Here's Gallup's chart of the most "Liberal"/ "Conservative" states:</p> <p align="center"><img src="http://sas-origin.onstreammedia.com/origin/gallupinc/GallupSpaces/Production/Cms/POLL/jg9ypgpfvewahmtfa-cimq.gif" border="0" alt="Top 10 Conservative States" hspace="0" width="265" height="372" /> <img src="http://sas-origin.onstreammedia.com/origin/gallupinc/GallupSpaces/Production/Cms/POLL/pchyqvrrae2wx2-dg8xyhw.gif" border="0" alt="Top 10 Liberal States" hspace="0" width="265" height="372" /></p> 2010-02-03T13:09:16-05:00 1379 false true 2010-02-04T10:08:18-05:00 2010-02-04T10:08:18-05:00 1 1 <p>A week of relatively positive press following the President's State of the union address has helped his approval rating, according to Gallup: "President Barack Obama's job approval rating has jumped up to 51% in the most recent three-day Gallup Daily tracking. This follows 11 straight days of Gallup reporting in which Obama's approval rating was below the 50% mark. Here is Gallup's chart posted on Monday:</p> <p align="center"><img src="http://sas-origin.onstreammedia.com/origin/gallupinc/GallupSpaces/Production/Cms/POLL/fbni_5jvg0w2po3tz93c2q.gif" border="0" alt="President Obama Job Approval -- Gallup Daily Tracking for January 2010" hspace="0" width="519" height="293" /></p> 2010-02-02T13:15:40-05:00 1378 false true 2010-02-03T09:41:16-05:00 2010-02-03T09:41:16-05:00 1 1 <p>According to <a href="http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/media_entertainment/48-million-watch-president-obamas-first-state-of-the-union-address/">Nielsen Wire</a>, President Obama's first State of the Union address was viewed by more than 48 million viewers -- down 7% from President Bush's first official address in 2002.</p> 2010-01-31T10:39:21-05:00 1358 false true 2010-02-02T09:16:06-05:00 2010-02-02T09:16:06-05:00 1 1 <p>The President Obama's State of the Union address appears to have given him a slight lift in approval numbers this week: <em><strong>His </strong><strong>approval number </strong></em>has risen this week, according to <em>PollTrack</em>'s weekly average. As of Sunday evening, his rating is as follows: APPROVE: <em><strong>49.0%</strong></em>. Also of note: the president's disapproval has now fallen below his approval number to 47.8%. It will be interesting to see if the increase in approval will be sustained over the next few weeks.</p> 2010-01-31T10:33:44-05:00 1356 false true 2010-02-01T09:11:42-05:00 2010-02-01T09:11:42-05:00 1 1 <p>In polling leading up to Wednesday's state of the union address, President Obama's disapproval rating is showing signs of eclipsing his approval rating (a problem demonstrated by Monday's weekly <em>PollTrack </em>rating). In two polls, Obama's disapproval is higher (Rasmussen, CNN Opinion Research) in two others, the numbers are more or less even (NPR and Gallup). Stay tuned. Monday's average may gives us a sense if Wednesday's national address has approved the president's standing.</p> 2010-01-28T13:58:21-05:00 1355 false true 2010-01-29T09:32:18-05:00 2010-01-29T09:32:18-05:00 1 1 <p>According to a new <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122993562">NPR poll</a>, the GOP leads Democrats in the generic congressional ballot, 44% to 39%--a +5% advantage.&nbsp; <br />In 2008, the Democratic advantage in the survey was +8%.<br />Among the most motivated voters, the GOP lead is even greater: <span style="font-size: small;">"Most significantly, the generic ballot improves to blowout levels among the voters most interested in the elections.&nbsp;&nbsp; Among the 70% of likely voters who rate their interest in the upcoming November elections as an 8-10 on a scale of 1-10 (where one means not interested/ten means very interested), the GOP lead on the generic ballot grows to 48%-38%.&nbsp; Among 10s, it is a 50%-36% margin."</span></p> 2010-01-27T09:28:27-05:00 1353 false true 2010-01-28T10:32:38-05:00 2010-01-28T10:32:38-05:00 1 1 <p><a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/125303/Americans-See-Economic-Recovery-Long-Way-Off.aspx">According to a new Gallup survey</a>, American remain pessimistic about the economy: "Americans are thinking in terms of years, not months, when pondering how much longer it will be before the U.S. economy starts to recover. The vast majority (67%) believe it will be at least two years before a recovery starts, and nearly half (46%) think it will be at least three years . . . a full third of Americans (34%) say it will be four or more years before a recovery starts, the mean response is 4 &frac12; years-- putting the average predicted onset of recovery well into 2014."</p> 2010-01-20T18:13:22-05:00 1345 false true 2010-01-27T09:15:57-05:00 2010-01-27T09:15:57-05:00