On Wedesday, I blogged the news that Rasumssen's latest Generic Presidential Ballot showed a generic Republican defeating Obama 48%-43% in 2012, positing it as a possible indicator that the GOP has nothing to fear from Obama in the so-called debt ceiling debate.

And today, courtesy of Gallup, comes apparent confirmation of Rasmussen's results (emphasis mine):

Registered voters by a significant margin now say they are more likely to vote for the "Republican Party's candidate for president" than for President Barack Obama in the 2012 election, 47% to 39%.  Preferences had been fairly evenly divided this year in this test of Obama's re-election prospects.

As with the Rasmussen poll, how much of these results one can debate what portion of these results to attribute to the debt ceiling standoff.  But it's pretty safe to say, his current tactics aren't helping him any and in fact, there is now evidence in Gallup's wider gap, that Obama's situation may even be getting worse.

On second thought, perhaps the president's childish antics have actually prevented his numbers from getting even worse.  So I say, let's give him the benefit of the doubt and call it 47% percent to 39% percentage points lost or saved.

Now if someone would be so kind as to track down Mr. Generic, inform him of these results and urge him to declare his candidacy...

Gene Schwimmer is the author of The Christian State.