Obama’s approval index back to pre-SOTU levels

Two days ago John Hinderacker over at Power Line Blog noted President Obama’s approval ratings were back to the pre-State of the Union levels. After the Scott Brown-induced speech, Obama is back to an approval index of -15 in the most recent Rasmussen poll.

Although Obama’s State of the Union speech provided him a bump in approval ratings, his approval index was back to -17 yesterday and -15 today. During the last 30 days, his approval index was as low as -19, which represents the difference between likely registered voters who strongly approve and strongly disapprove of the president’s performance.

Hinderaker notes

President Obama’s approval ratings spiked up rather alarmingly in the wake of his State of the Union speech, most likely because of the lip-service he paid to fiscal moderation. Since then, though, they’ve been returning to normal, driven, I suspect, by public revulsion toward the realities of the President’s $3.7 trillion budget, with its $1.6 trillion deficit.

Others writing included Morrissey at Hot Air.

I’m not a big fan of the day-to-day polling, and was not really all that alarmed about the bounce – if you can call it that – Obama received after the SOTU. What did surprise me is how quickly the approval index dropped back to the previous trend line.

The electorate liked what they heard, then remembered who was saying it.

By the way … how are the Congress-critters doing? Rasmussen’s report on Congressional performance on Jan. 28 indicated 45 percent of voters now view most members of Congress as being corrupt, the highest level found since June 2008.

More notes on Congress…

61% of likely voters say Congress is doing a poor job. Just 12% give Congress good or excellent ratings. …

While most voters (59%) think cutting taxes is a better way to create jobs than increased government spending, they overwhelmingly expect Congress to increase spending instead. …

Fifty-eight percent (58%) of Mainstream voters say most members of Congress are corrupt, but nearly half (48%) of the Political Class disagree. …

Seventy-eight percent (78%) say most members of Congress are more interested in furthering their own careers than actually helping people.

I think the St. Louis Rams (1-15 for 2010) are more respected.

Updated to add… Marist poll shows Obama loosing big to independent voters. Click the link to read more over at Hot Air.

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Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

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