Obama's Ratings Sink to New Lows

It would seem that Barack Obama's no strategy re-election strategy is not playing too well with the public. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll indicates that more than 60 percent of those surveyed say they disapprove of the way Obama is handling the economy and the stagnant job market situation. I suspect much of the displeasure comes from the perception that Obama is doing nothing - something that grows from his refusal to act as a leader, his failure to utilize the bully pulpit of the presidency, and his overall appearance of in effectiveness. In 2008, people voted for a man that wanted to be a leader and instead they got the follower-in-chief. Here are highlights from the Washington Post on the poll findings:

Public pessimism about the direction of the country has jumped to its highest level in nearly three years, erasing the sense of hope that followed President Obama’s inauguration and pushing his approval ratings to a record low, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

More than 60 percent of those surveyed say they disapprove of the way the president is handling the economy and, what has become issue No. 1, the stagnant jobs situation. Just 43 percent now approve of the job he is doing overall, a new career low; 53 percent disapprove, a new high.

The urgency for Obama to act is driven not just by the most recent unemployment report, which on Friday showed no job growth in August and the unemployment rate stuck at 9.1 percent, but also by the depth of the political hole in which the president finds himself. Even more than two-thirds of those who voted for Obama say things are badly off course.

[C]urrent trends are highly unfavorable for the president. By 2 to 1, more Americans now say the administration’s economic policies are making the economy worse rather than better. The number who say those policies have helped has been chopped in half since the start of the year. The percentage of Americans disapproving of how Obama is doing when it comes to creating jobs spiked 10 percentage points higher since July.

Of the more than six in 10 who now disapprove of Obama’s work on jobs and the economy, nearly half of all Americans “strongly” disapprove.

Things are also bad for Obama when Americans are asked a version of the famous “are you better off today” question that Reagan used to bludgeon Jimmy Carter on his way to defeating Carter in 1980. By better than 2 to 1, more say they are not as well off financially as they were at the start of Obama’s term.

The sense of deflation is particularly apparent among Democrats, with nearly two-thirds saying things are pretty seriously off on the wrong track. The percentage of Democrats saying things are headed in the right direction has cratered from 60 percent at the start of the year to 32 percent now.

Among political independents — a prime target of Obama’s new outreach — 78 percent see the country as off-kilter.

Given Obama's lack of leadership and constant caving to the GOP I frankly do not see how he turns around the current free fall in the polls. That said, the prospect of a GOP president from the current candidate field scares the daylights out of me.