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WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama's tumbling poll numbers have dipped below those of his predecessor George W. Bush at the same point in his White House tenure, according to a national poll released Tuesday. Obama's approval rating is 55 percent six months into his presidency, a USA Today/Gallup poll found. But 56 percent of those polled approved of the job done by George W. Bush after six months, the daily reported. Obama's handling of the economy appears to be key in his fading popularity, as Americans become more pessimistic about how long it will take the economic downturn to...

Something has changed over the course of the last five weeks. Barack Obama, who seemed politically invincible to his supporters and many media commentators, now seems vulnerable. His approval ratings are dropping, public concern is rising, the debt is exploding, and the economy is, in many respects, worsening. This may simply be a bit of a rough patch he can ride through and overcome; or it may be the beginning of a longer slide. Time will tell. But Obama seems less politically formidable than he did. The main reason for this shift is that Obama’s signature initiative to date, his...

Like ex-senators and former presidents, ex-governors retain their honorific titles, so Sarah Palin will still be addressed as "Governor Palin" after she officially turns the reigns of her office over to Sean Parnell July 26. The 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate has never been much of a stickler for that kind of thing, though, as she signs "Sarah" to her non-official correspondence. So what will she be doing after July 26? Only one specific event has been announced so far that will have Gov. Palin's participation. According to the Simi Valley Republican Women Federation (SVWF), Sarah Palin will be at...

The approval rating for The Greatest President In History has been trending south lately. And the pace is accelerating. According to Rasmussen, he just hit his lowest negative rating to date: The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 32% of the nation’s voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-seven percent (37%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of –5. The number who strongly disapprove inched up another point to the highest level measured to date and the overall Approval Index is at the...

Apparently Sarah Palin's decision to quit her post as Governor of Alaska wasn't as misguided as it sounded at first, because it has certainly already begun to work it's magic on winning over the Republican party. According to a new USA Today/Gallup Poll, her popularity has surged amongst Republicans since she made the announcement. 71 percent of Republicans said they would vote for Palin if she ran for president in 2012, and three-fourths believe that Palin has been treated unfairly by the media. Two-thirds of Republicans want Palin to be "a major national political figure" in the future, while three-fourths...

The cost of the high popularity of Lula Notwithstanding his anti-life and anti-family policies, huge state investments in propaganda ensure popularity for Lula Julio SeveroBrazilian newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo reported, “Approval ratings for Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva rose from 78% on March to 80% on June, according to data from the CNI/Ibope polls released June 9. The percentage of respondents considering the Lula administration very good or good also improved: it went up from 64% to 68%. The rates of those disapproving the Lula administration fell from 19% to 16%”.Certainly, the respondents were not asked...

American freedom lovers studying the reign of Obama have been in a constant state of anxiety over the administration's assault on capitalism and America's very solvency, its thuggish political style, its PR war against America's history, its radical social policies and its Carteresque foreign policy. But for the first time, there are signs that America is starting to wake up. The latest daily Rasmussen Reports Presidential Tracking Poll has Obama slipping into negative net approval territory, with more Americans strongly disapproving of his performance (34 percent) than strongly approving (33 percent). Just 54 percent of voters say they at least...

The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have two articles in today’s papers that tell essentially the same story. The headline from the Times is “Poll Finds Unease With Obama on Key Issues.” It’s followed by this: A substantial majority of Americans say President Obama has not developed a strategy to deal with the budget deficit, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, which also found that support for his plans to overhaul health care, rescue the auto industry and close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, falls well below his job approval ratings.

Heard on a DC talk radio show...in answer to the question: Why does this president remain so popular?

Question: Why are liberals so upset with Glenn Beck? Answer: Because he’s popular and it is a popularity based on ideas and humor. In the garbage time slot of 5 p.m. Eastern, he outdraws Keith Olbermann in prime time. Wrote Greg Pollowitz at NRO: “What really scares the pants off of liberals when you mention Glenn Beck is how fast his show on Fox has become a hit.” So they have their knives out for him just as they do Republican Gov. Sarah Palin. Perhaps liberals realize that as their ideas become realities, the people are going to turn on...

Where Ronald Reagan tore down a wall, Barack Obama has hit one – and it’s made of bricks. European support for the American president is suffering. As Gregor Peter Schmitz asserts in Der Spiegel, “it has become clear that the most contentious issues [between the U.S. and Europe] have been shelved.” This means Obama is no longer asking Europe to replicate his idea of a stimulus plan and he’s not pushing for military help in Afghanistan. On both issues European leaders have declared, “No we can’t.” And people say Bush squandered the world’s sympathy? Anyone remember nuggets like this from...

The difference how the troops received President Bush and Obama.

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama enjoys widespread backing from a frightened American public for his ambitious, front-loaded agenda, a new poll indicates. He is more popular than ever, Americans are hopeful about his leadership, and opposition Republicans are getting drubbed in public opinion, the new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll suggests.

While the number of Americans who approve of Barack Obama’s job performance remains steady and high, the number who Strongly Approve has slipped. Following Congressional passage of the stimulus bill, consumer confidence has fallen to another all-time low. ... Twenty-six percent (26%) of all voters now Strongly Disapprove to give Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of +10. That Approval Index rating is also the lowest yet for the President (see trends).

Barack Obama's foreign tour loses him ground back home Tim Reid in Washington Barack Obama denied yesterday that he was ignoring the concerns of ordinary Americans while he tours the world, amid signs that the adulation he is receiving abroad has alienated some US voters. After the Democratic presidential candidate holds meetings with Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron in London today, the last leg of his nine-day international tour, he returns home to a general election campaign with new polls showing him in a tightening race against John McCain, the Republican candidate. Mr McCain and his surrogates have...

Economics -- to most people as useful a course of study as ancient Bulgarian literature -- is really the study of human behavior. This kind of behavior is labeled “emergent” -- meaning it is a large-scale pattern that emerges spontaneously out of the interactions of numerous individuals each independently following a more local program. (In the case of the economy, this more-local program is the perceived self-interest of each of the millions of people within the economy.) Because of the huge number of factors involved, and the constant feedback of one factor on another, predicting emergent effects is as difficult...

I am really curious on this one. I became a fan in 1975, with 'Born To Run', and was dazzled by the force, power, Spector-like grandeur. It was the epitome of 'Americana' for me. I saw him live three times, last in 1987. However, my fandom abated around 1990 or so, but I kept following what he did. Uneven albums, band changes, divorce, a new and happy marriage. Like any other artist, he has his shortcomings, one of these being a tendency towards bombast, pathos, a bit too much of 'grandeur'. But I think he does have his heart in...

A new study reveals that for teens, it's not whether you're really popular. It's whether you think you are. Perhaps no period of life is more fraught with obsessive worries about popularity, social hierarchies and reputations than that treacherous, three-year period known as middle school. The social anxieties of adolescence have driven plotlines from "The Wonder Years" to "Hannah Montana" where teens and pre-teens spend entire hours and episodes agonizing over what their peers think. Figuring out whether you'll end up being a cool prom king or queen bee--or the kid who eats alone in the cafeteria--is an integral part...

IN LOS FELIZ, across from a 7-Eleven on North Vermont Avenue, a few dozen men in their early 20s to late 80s share a dinner behind closed doors. Some wear full tuxedos with bow ties and jeweled cuff links, some have shoulder-length hair, and others wear open-collared shirts that reveal the slightest filigree of tattoo arching across their chests. Over Italian food, retired lawyers and judges sit elbow-to-elbow with owners of scrap metal yards and vintage clothing boutiques. They hold forth on philosophy, the weather; they rib each other and joke about saving room for cannoli. As they reach for...

-- snip -- The real lesson in the years since 9/11 is different from what the Democratic candidates imagine: It is easy to be loved when you are a victim. It is harder to be popular when you act decisively to protect yourself and others. A successful president should strive for America to be liked -- and expect, on occasion, for America to be resented in a good cause.