Obama's tide flows in, then it flows out

By Richard Baehr

President Obama's overall job approval has fallen below 50% for first time in the Quinnipiac poll.

Quinnipiac, which uses very big sample size: over 2,500, shows Obama's approval under 50% for the first time.

President Barack Obama's job approval rating is 48 - 42 percent, the first time he has slipped below the 50 percent threshold nationally, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. Support for the war in Afghanistan and approval of President Obama's handling of the war also is down in the last month, and Republican support for the war is more than twice as strong as Democratic support.

Others report there is also big drop in support for health care bill.

It appears that there is a lagged effect to news, especially in polls that average several days of interviews. With people opposed to the KSM civilian trial by 2 to 1 or more, that may now be showing up in numbers.

Michael Barone and others have some interesting numbers on ethnic votes in governors races last week. Jews voted 38% for Christie (McCain won 21% of the Jewish vote in 2008, if you believe exit polls).

Asians (62-35 for Obama) voted majority for Christie, a big shift among Indian Americans (do you think MDs are happy with Obama?).

If Obama's agenda -- health care and cap and trade, collapses, unemployment stays high, the dollar keeps tanking, and deficits keep rising, Obama will be viewed as a failure -- flailing around madly with new policies, making things worse.

And by the way, Geithner and others (Paulson) should be figuratively burned at the stake for the AIG bailout, the worst outrage of last year's bailout, which saved Goldman, Merrill and other firms from tens of billions in losses.

Hat tip: Gene Schwimmer