Sinking numbers

Current polling data looks pretty ominous for President Obama and the Democrats. A recent Wall Street Journal/NBC poll shows the president’s job approval rating sinking underwater, with 45 percent of those surveyed approving Obama’s performance but 48 percent disapproving. As the Journal’s John Fund points out, a president’s rating is a key indicator of how many seats his party will lose in a mid-term election. When Democrats lost 54 House seats and eight Senate seats in 1994, President Clinton’s job approval rating was 46 percent. Much could change between now and November, but the overall trajectory of public opinion is against the party that controls Washington. The latest Real Clear Politics average of polls shows 61.7 percent of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track; just 32.7 percent think the country is on the right track. These can be reversed, but the government’s handling of the BP oil spill, concerns about Afghanistan and flat-out outrage over deficit spending appear to make that unlikely.