Obama's Approval and Trustworthiness Continue to Fall

Trust in President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies to identify the right solutions to problems facing the country has dropped off significantly since March, according to a new Public Strategies Inc./POLITICO poll.

Just as Obama intensifies his efforts to fulfill a campaign promise and reach an agreement with Congress on health care reform, the number of Americans who say they trust the president has fallen from 66 percent to 54 percent. At the same time, the percentage of those who say they do not trust the president has jumped from 31 to 42.

The president’s party has taken a similar hit since the last Public Trust Monitor poll, with only 42 percent of respondents saying that they trust the Democratic Party, compared with 52 percent who do not. The party’s numbers are nearly the inverse of March’s survey, in which 52 percent said they trusted Democrats and 42 percent did not.

Obama’s personal approval rating has fallen below 60 percent in a number of recent major polls, and according to a Washington Post/ABC News survey out Monday, support for the president’s leadership on several key issues has fallen below 50 percent.

But whatever the problems faced by Obama and his party, they still earn higher approval ratings than other Washington leaders or the Republican Party, according to the Public Trust Monitor poll. And the loss in trust in Democrats did not correspond with a gain for the GOP: Trust in Republicans fell from 40 percent in March to 36 percent in the recent survey.

As I said a couple of days ago, the sparkle has faded, the rust is beginning to show, and these disapproval numbers will continue to climb. Why couldn't these people have just listened before the election, to the kind of man Obama is. We could have avoided all of this. John McCain wasn't exactly the pick of the litter, but at least he isn't socialist, at least he has experience, at least he is certifiably American.

It's a shame the Republican Party has failed to take advantage of this. It is almost as if they want to lose. I mean really, what an opportunity they had against Obama, with all the evidence against him in the campaign, being a socialist, palling around with terrorists, hate mongers, etc. But they couldn't come up with a candidate or a strategy to take advantage of that? They couldn't find someone better than Obama? They couldn't take advantage of the years as the majority in congress, to gain respect, trust and momentum? How inept are the GOP leaders?

It looks as if the Republican Party is dying, and unless someone jumps in to save it, it collapse completely, leading the way for a new party, hopefully, a more conservative one.

Read more at politico.com