THE OBAMA TREND AND ITS IMPACT ON A FAILED AGENDA

The above graphs were taken from the Rasmussen polling website. Each shows the overall trend of continual diminishing support for Barack Obama since taking office in January. Where Rasmussen differs in its polling from other polling sources is that rather than sampling just adults a Gallop and others do, Rasmussen polls likely voters which in my opinion presents a mush clearer picture than a general poll of adults since likely voters are the key to elections. Which is also why Rasmussen has been on the mark in that last three elections.

The top poll shows the general approval rating of Obama which started at 65% at Inauguration and has plummeted to as low as 45% and remains in that upper 40's range. The second graph is the Presidential approval index which takes the strongly approve numbers and compares it to the strongly disapprove numbers. Obama has been in the negative in this poll consistently since June and the -13% he shows now was only eclipsed by a - 14% in August. He has consistently held between -8 and -12 for that past several months. All of his pandering and rhetoric has not made a difference in his continual sagging numbers.

What does this mean for the passage of his agenda and his policy ? In the short term Obama has been spending what political capital he had on health care and has virtually exhausted it. Members of Congress on both sides of the isle understand this and especially those of his own party who are more moderate, realize that with popularity as low as it is Obama does not have the political coat tails to help them in what is shaping up to be an uphill battle for the Democrats to remain in the majority especially in the House.

As such, except for the far left in Congress, members of his own party are not going to stick their necks out to support any initiative just because it is part of Obama's agenda. His personal popularity is one of the main reasons that he was able to force through the unwarranted stimulus bill so quickly because Democrats were not willing to go against such a popular new President.

Those days are over and the voice of constituents is much more important to Congressional members especially in light of next year being an election year and the massive amount of vocal opposition to Obama's agenda. While Obama and the leadership in Congress arrogantly believe that just because they want it they can push anything through is not the case when it comes to the political lives of many Democrats who understand that they still have to face the people back home and those people are angry.

This is evidenced by the ongoing struggle over health care. While Harry Reid and Obama continually try publicly to blame the troubles in coming up with a bill on what they call an obstructionist GOP in Congress, the truth of the matter is that Democrats are the problem because liberals will not vote for a bill without the government option and moderates will not vote for one with it. Also moderate Democrats are concerned about the cost and how the bill will actually be paid for. If the GOP was the problem then the bill would not only be fully constructed but easily passed because of the large majorities that Democrats have in both the House and the Senate. If they were truly united behind Obama, they would not need one Republican to do whatever they wished.

Additionally the people are seeing through the smoke and mirrors. We understand the bills and in fact according to another Rasmussen poll only 42% favor health care while 53% do not. Only 31% believe that Congress even knows what any of the bills contain and 4 out of 5 Americans believe they know more about what is in the legislation than any member of Congress. So we are not being fooled and the Obama, Reid, Pelosi rhetoric is falling on deaf ears.

Those who are discouraged by the massive amount of positive coverage given to Obama which lends one to believe that this and his other monstrosities are done deals, remember this. The silent majority is silent no longer and the majority of the people are against this terrible agenda presented by Obama and liberal Democrats. More Americans are waking up to the truth everyday and with Obama's war on Fox News, his own stupidity in this is actually causing more to turn to Fox where they are seeing the truth and joining the Obama opposition. This combined with enough Democrats in fear of their political lives presents a scenario of failed legislation and a continual struggle to enact his agenda and greater slides in popularity.

Ken Taylor