With all the talk talk talk on the part of Obama, you would think that his positive ratings would be "through the roof." While he has picked up 3 points in his 7-day "total approval" average, something we feature here at the Review, his numbers remain very low compared to his positive rating during the 2008 campaign. Last week, a liberal pundit on FoxNews made the silly statement: "Presidents are elected based on their personal popularity numbers and Obama has one of highest personal approval averages of any president in memory."
Of course, none of that is true. We need not go back in time any further than the re-election of George W Bush to make our case.
In the Rasmussen chart, below, the number that really counts is the "strongly approve" rating. At the time of Obama's election in 2008, that number was nearly 50%. Its average, today, is 26%. I do not believe that he can win the coming election with that set of numbers. It is the "strongly approved" who do
all the work needed in the election campaign.
Date | Presidential Approval Index | Strongly Approve | Strongly Disapprove | Total Approve | Total Disapprove |
3/16/2012 | -12 | 27% | 39% | 49% | 49% |
3/15/2012 | -15 | 26% | 41% | 47% | 51% |
3/14/2012 | -15 | 27% | 42% | 47% | 52% |
3/13/2012 | -14 | 28% | 42% | 49% | 51% |
3/12/2012 | -16 | 26% | 42% | 47% | 52% |
3/11/2012 | -19 | 25% | 44% | 44% | 54% |
3/10/2012 | -19 | 25% | 44% | 44% | 54% |
At this stage in the re-election campaign, GW was spending nearly
three times less than Obama is spending. Obama has been campaigning full-time
for nearly a full year, but took in only 178 million dollars. Beginning with the first of March, he has stepped up his fund raising from one fundraiser every three days to a little more than 1 fundraiser per day. The reason? It is obvious. Things are not going as planned with regards to fundraising. $15 million per month will not cover his costs. Now, of course, we are not talking about SuperPac money. Both sides of the aisle are doing quite well in this venue.
Point of post: to confirm that not much has changed since the last time we reviewed this particular circumstance. Obama is still running behind his funding goals, his approval numbers have not increased and his re-election efforts are in serious jeopardy.