Obama's Approval Ratings And The Midterm Elections

Rasmussen Polling reports a strong disapproval for President Obama's job performance:
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 24% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-six percent (46%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -22...
These numbers along with similar polling from the likes of Gallup and Quinnipiac point toward an interesting impact that low Presidential job performance has midterm elections.
Bruce Drake of Politics Daily spells out this piece of historical political trivia nicely:
If history is a guide to midterm elections, the party that controls the White House usually loses House seats in the off-year contests and the losses are bigger when the president's job approval rating is below 50 percent.







This morning at 10AM President Obama will announce Elena Kagan to replace John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court. Stevens just celebrated his 90th birthday last month. Kagan just turned 50 and, if confirmed, will be the youngest person currently serving on the Court.



Today, President Obama is due to sign an Executive Order "reaffirming" restrictions on federal funding of abortion. This was a last minute deal brokered by the White House and Rep. Bart Stupak in order to get the votes needed to pass Health Care.
