Mar 11 President Obama: One Term Wonder?

There are several thousand political lifetimes left between today and Election Day, 2010. That means there are tens of thousands of political lifetimes left between today and the next presidential election. Still, Scott Rasmussen's polling must be causing Mr. Axelrod to drink Maalox by the bottle:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 22% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-three percent (43%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -21. That matches the lowest Approval Index rating yet recorded for this President.

as bad as those numbers are, these numbers should scare Chris van Hollen and Robert Menendez:

Forty-two percent (42%) of Democrats Strongly Approve while 72% of Republicans Strongly Disapprove. Among those not affiliated with either major political party, 17% Strongly Approve and 45% Strongly Disapprove.

I've been around politics long enough to know that the president's party does exceptionally poorly when that president is that unpopular with independents. That president is like an anchor around their necks. It's the type of weight that can't be escaped from.

What's worse for Rep. van Hollen is that Speaker Pelosi is tying another anchor around their necks. Technically, that anchor is called deeming, which I wrote about here. In the real world, news like that make people worry whether it's the first step on a slippery slope to becoming a banana republic.

The most important thing to take from these numbers is that Democrats are hugely unpopular with independents. The next most important thing to take from these numbers is that, if Republicans outwork the Democrats, they've got a legitimate chance at winning an historic victory this November.

Comments welcome at LFR.