President Obama marks his 49th day in the universe today with a speech to the AFL-CIO Executive Council Meeting in Washington, and then later gets some private time with Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader from Kentucky.
He'll then head home to Chicago to hang with some friends, as the rest of the First Family is off doing their thing this week.
It also comes a day after the President received his lowest poll ranking ever from USA Today/Gallup,which had on Tuesday at 41%. It should be affirmed that's just one poll, and most of the other establishment survey organizations have him on average at 45% approval, 50% negative (according to Real Clear Politics). Underwater, yes, but not dipping below 40%, which yesterday's poll comes close to.
Of course if you follow conservative media, Obama's ratings have been dropping from since the day after he was inaugurated, and there's no new news here. Turn on Bill O'Reilly nightly to hear how soon he reflects on the President's dropping poll numbers.
Nevertheless, even if it's just an outlier, 41% is scary for the White House. It is precariously close to 40%, which has to be considered the "Mendoza" line for approval ratings (The "Mendoza line" comes from the world of sportswriting, and was tagged for any ballplayer getting close to a .200 average, which to the uninitiated, is extremely low. Unfortunately, it could have been named after any struggling hitter, but was named after a former Pittsburgh Pirate named Mario Mendoza).
George W. Bush dropped into the 30% range back in the fall of 2005, following the Harriet Miers debacle, which had followed the debacle with Hurricane Katrina. Though he had nearly three more years in his presidency, Bush never recovered from Katrina/Miers. Of course, there had been a lot of other things leading to his unpopularity, such as the Iraq war, but somehow he was re-elected in 2004 over John Kerry.
That frustration with Bush was manifested in the 2006 Congressional elections, when Democrats stunningly took back the House and the Senate, the former for the first time in 12 years.
Now in early August of 2010, the problems the country faces are immense and well known. Starting first and foremost with a stubborn recession that shows no immediate signs of getting better anytime soon, despite the proclamations by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner yesterday that it is.
The BP oil spill may finally be ending, though it's premature to say that. The federal government's slowness in dealing with the crises is a minus for this administration, though critics have at times been unfair in their criticism.
This article appears in Jul 29 – Aug 4, 2010.