One would think that Barack Obama could count on the support of fellow Democraps Democrats on legislation and other matters both domestically and internationally.

Let’s just say that some of his brethren are jumping ship.

According to a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll commissioned recently, Obama’s job approval among Democrats has dropped again, from 84 percent just a couple weeks ago to around 76 percent as of July 13.

I suspect that several factors come into play as to why the numbers have dropped:

• Dissatisfaction among his party reduces turnout at the polls and as a result undermines the President as the numbers in both the House and Senate get smaller.
• Obama is abandoning his “post-racial” spiel as he is focusing on minorities to the exclusion of his white voter base. That in and of itself is a recipe for disaster, especially with the November 2010 mid-term elections drawing near.
• The President’s decision to sue the state of Arizona over its immigration law. As it turns out, 59 percent of those polled by Fox News approve of Arizona’s statute as the 29 percent who oppose it.
• There’s the issue of the Administration’s refusal to prosecute the New Black Panthers for obvious voter intimidation. This underscores the increasing exclusion of whites of all stripes – including progressives –  from Obama’s base.

What is so interesting about all of this is thyat the President’s snarkiness and narcissism – polariziation, if you will – is exactly why his numbers have dropped to such lows.

Obviously, Obama needs to make some changes if he expects the Democrats to retain majorities in both the House and Senate. But the President’s mindset simply will not allow to do the common sense things necessary. As Rush Limbaugh once said, he wanted Obama’s policies to fail. I feel the same way.

According to Gallup:

Hispanics’ approval of President Barack Obama’s job performance slipped to 57% in May, after falling from 69% in January to 64% in February. By contrast, whites’ and blacks’ approval of the president has been steady throughout 2010.

These trend figures are based on monthly averages of Gallup Daily tracking for 2010, including interviews with approximately 1,000 Hispanics each month.

Taking Reform Off the Table

The two major drops in Hispanics’ approval of Obama this year — in February and May — coincide with two periods when the president was under fire for not doing enough to promote comprehensive immigration reform in Congress.

After Obama’s State of the Union speech in January, several leading Hispanics and Hispanic groups criticized Obama for not devoting more attention to immigration reform in the speech — and, more specifically, for not fulfilling his campaign promise of making comprehensive immigration reform a top priority. As one Hispanic activist wrote at the time, “For those looking for a strong statement in support of comprehensive immigration reform, the speech was a big disappointment.” Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez was also publicly critical of Obama after the speech.

Gallup Daily tracking showed Obama’s approval rating among Hispanics falling nearly 10 percentage points in the week after his State of the Union address compared to the week prior to the speech. And Obama’s ratings remained subdued in February, resulting in the five-point drop in Hispanics’ approval between the two months.

Obama also drew considerable ire from Hispanic groups — as well as from New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez — after making statements at the end of April in which he essentially removed comprehensive immigration reform from his legislative agenda for 2010, citing political obstacles.

Again, there appeared to be an almost immediate impact: Obama’s approval rating from Hispanics dropped seven points in the week after he made the statements, compared with the week prior to those statements. Publicity about Arizona’s passage of a controversial immigration law around the same time may have only intensified Hispanics’ desire to see quick action on comprehensive national reform legislation, thus keeping their approval rating of Obama below 60% throughout May.

Decline Steeper Among Spanish-Language Respondents

The decline in Obama’s approval rating with Hispanics is seen mainly among those interviewed in Spanish: an 11-point drop in the past month and a total of 21 points since January. By contrast, his approval among Hispanics interviewed in English is down just 5 points since January.

About a third of Gallup’s interviews with Hispanics are conducted in Spanish, accommodating respondents who are not proficient in English. Prior Gallup research clearly shows that Hispanics interviewed in Spanish are much more likely to be immigrants to the U.S. than are those interviewed in English, supporting the idea that the immigration issue may be a factor in Hispanics’ dwindling approval of the president.

Despite the widening gap in approval of Obama between Hispanics interviewed in Spanish and those interviewed in English, Gallup finds little difference in the trends on the basis of voter registration. His approval rating is down nine points since March among Hispanics who are registered to vote, as well as eight points among Hispanics who are not registered. While Hispanics’ reduced support for Obama may or may not have a direct impact on their vote for Congress this fall, it could certainly make it harder for Obama to personally boost midterm turnout among Hispanics as part of the Democrats’ get-out-the-vote initiative.

Bottom Line

Hispanics — and particularly Hispanics who appear to be more closely associated with Hispanic immigrants — have become increasingly disenchanted with President Obama this year. That said, it is important to note that in all instances a majority of Hispanics continue to say they approve of the president’s job performance, exceeding approval among non-Hispanic whites. While Obama has tried to show strong moral support for the idea of comprehensive immigration reform, his reluctance to expend any real political capital to make it happen may be taking a toll on his approval rating in the Hispanic community.

A new Quinnipiac University poll reveals that a plurality Americans want a law similar to Arizona’s immigration enforcement law passed in their own state. Forty-eight percent of Americans want their state to pass an immigration enforcement law that allows local police to ask about an individual’s legal status if there is reasonable suspicion that they are in the country illegally.

“The Arizona immigration law has emerged as a major divide in the country, but the numbers are on the side of those supporting it,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Responses regarding Arizona’s new law varied by age. A majority of Americans over the age of 35 support the law, but Americans between the ages of 18-34 opposed the law. Three out of four respondents agree that boycotting the state of Arizona is a bad idea.

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The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 25% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty-three percent (43%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -18.

Following passage of health care, enthusiasm for the president among Democrats soared. Today, however, just 49% of Democrats Strongly Approve of Obama’s performance. That’s down from a high of 65%. It remains to be seen whether this is a temporary aberration or the beginning of a lasting change.

Sixty-three percent (63%) of voters nationwide favor repeal of the health care law. That’s the highest level of support for repeal yet measured.

The Presidential Approval Index is calculated by subtracting the number who Strongly Disapprove from the number who Strongly Approve.

Overall, 44% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the president’s performance. Fifty-four percent (55%) disapprove. The Rasmussen Reports Media Meter shows that media coverage of the President has been 51% positive over the past week.

Just 27% are even somewhat confident that Congress knows what it’s doing when addressing that nation’s economic challenges. That figure includes only 6% who are Very Confident that Congress knows what it’s doing.

Most Americans have “come to believe that the political system is broken, that most politicians are corrupt, and that neither major political party has the answers,” observes Scott Rasmussen. Forty-one percent (41%) of voters say that a group of people randomly selected from the phone book would do a better job than the current Congress.

It is important to remember that the Rasmussen Reports job approval ratings are based upon a sample of likely voters. Some other firms base their approval ratings on samples of all adults. President Obama’s numbers are always several points higher in a poll of adults rather than likely voters. That’s because some of the president’s most enthusiastic supporters, such as young adults, are less likely to turn out to vote. It is also important to check the details of question wording when comparing approval ratings from different firms.

Daily tracking results are collected via telephone surveys of 500 likely voters per night and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. The margin of sampling error—for the full sample of 1,500 Likely Voters–is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

Like all polling firms, Rasmussen Reports weights its data to reflect the population at large. Among other targets, Rasmussen Reports weights data by political party affiliation using a dynamic weighting process. While partisan affiliation is generally quite stable over time, there are a fair number of people who waver between allegiance to a particular party or independent status. Since the November 2008 election, the number of Democrats in the country has declined while the number of unaffiliated voters has grown.

Their baseline targets are established based upon separate survey interviews with a sample of adults nationwide completed during the preceding three months (a total of 45,000 interviews) and targets are updated monthly. Currently, the baseline targets for the adult population are 35.8% Democrats, 32.2% Republicans, and 32.1% unaffiliated. Likely voter samples typically show a slightly smaller advantage for the Democrats.

One of the reasons Washington hates the new Arizona immigration law is when the law is upheld by the courts, it will send a clear signal to every state they can do the job Washington has refused to do. Who needs Washington?

In the Dick Morris Report published on The Hill on May 4, 2010, he says about Obama, “In his frequent messages calling for higher Latino and black turnout and his condemnation of the Arizona immigration law, Obama is trying to recapture over immigration the voter approval he lost over healthcare.”   It appears quite likely according to a Gallup Poll, that Obama will definitely not recapture any voter approval, and is very likely to lose even more than he wishes.   The Gallup Poll that was presented by CNS News on May 05, 2010 which was conducted on May 1-2, states that “9 out of 10 Americans Say Secure the Border This Year.” It couldn’t get more definitive than that. NINETY PERCENT of Americans; those are your employers, Mr. Obama; and lest you say that they are all Republicans, just don’t bet your lunch money on it.

The poll asked Americans if they would say ‘it is moderately to extremely important to them for the federal government to take steps this year to secure the border against illegal immigration’ and 9 out of 10 questioned answered positively. Only ten percent said it was not that important. However, 42 percent said it was extremely important, 26 percent said it was very important and 21 percent called it moderately important.   Those, Mr. Obama, are numbers that you just can not slough off as unimportant. That is 90 percent of the people telling you to TAKE ACTION NOW TO SECURE OUR BORDERS. And that doesn’t mean to send a handful of new border patrol agents to work on the problem; it means DO IT RIGHT, and DO IT NOW!   That question was followed by Gallup with another question asking “whether it was extremely important, very important, moderately important, or not that important to them that the U.S. government develop a plan to deal with the large number of illegal immigrants who are already living in the United States.”   In almost identical fashion, ninety percent of the respondents answered affirmatively regarding extremely, very or moderately important while only TEN PERCENT replied that it was not that important.

So it would appear that should the President choose to hang his hat and hopes on those 10 percenters who didn’t feel it was that important, he could find himself out of a job in 2012, if not sooner. Obama has a way of choosing to ignore anything that is not to his liking or that shows that his positions are not favorable to a high percentage of the REAL citizens of this country. He is extremely disdainful of the people who provide the tax dollars to operate the United States of America, but it is a group that should not be denigrated nor ignored.  

Accompanying the poll data was information on reasons why those poll respondents voted as they did and that was that “61 percent of Americans say they are very concerned that illegal immigrants are putting an unfair burden on U.S. schools, hospitals, and government services.” Also, 55 percent of the respondents said that “they were ‘very concerned’ that allowing illegal immigrants to stay in the United States might be encouraging others to come here, and 53 percent said they were ‘very concerned’ that illegal immigrants making low wages might make U.S. employers less willing to pay American workers a decent wage.  

This poll should show our federal government that our citizens of the entire country are overwhelmingly in favor of not just immigration reform as some in Congress and Obama as well are taking into consideration.   The citizens damn-well want it corrected. To ignore this great a number of American citizens is to act differently at their own peril. November is not that far away and memories are not that short that they will forget between now and then.   Get your act together, Obama, Pelosi, Reid, and other activists of negativity such as Schumer, and his cronies. You have been warned; I suggest you act accordingly.

Some tidbits from within the 202:

• German industrial giant Siemens has announced it will quit doing business with Iran. “The board has decided not to conclude new contracts with commercial partners in Iran,” company spokesman Alexander Becker told Agence France-Presse. Siemens sold about $700 million worth of goods to Iranian companies each year, according to Reuters.

             In December, German customs officers reportedly found turbo compressors bound for Iran from a Siemens branch in Sweden. Investigators said they could have been used in Iran’s missile program.

• The National Republican Senatorial Committee raised more funds than its Democratic counterpart for the third month in a row in December. The NRSC brought in $4.1 million, while the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee raised $3.4 million, CQ Politics reports. The DSCC outraised the NRSC for the year, however, bringing in about $43.6 million in 2009 to the Republican Committee’s $41.2 million.
• 45 percent of likely voters now agree that a group of people chosen at random from a telephone book would do a better job of dealing with the nation’s problems than the current Congress, a Rasmussen Reports poll reveals.

             Only 36 percent disagree, and 19 percent are not sure.

             Back in October 2008, just before the last congressional elections, 33 percent said a random group would be better than Congress.

             Rasmussen also found that 60 percent of voters think members of Congress are paid too much, while just 3 percent say they are paid too little.

             Most members of the House and Senate are paid $174,000 a year. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is the highest paid member of Congress, earning $223,500.

As if President Obama couldn’t get any lower, a poll commissioned by Rasmussen Reports has Obama near the dreaded -20 mark – minus 19, to be exact.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that 24% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-three percent (43%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -19.

These figures come from nightly telephone surveys and are reported on a three-day rolling average basis. Today’s update is the first based entirely upon interviews following Tuesday’s election in Massachusetts and the Approval Index has fallen eight points since Tuesday morning.

The number of Democrats who Strongly Approve has fallen from 55% on Tuesday morning to 48% today. The number of unaffiliated voters who Strongly Disapprove has increased from 43% on Tuesday to 51% today. It remains to be seen whether those changes are a temporary reaction in the wake of a stunning election upset or the beginning of a more lasting change.

Sixty-one percent (61%) of voters nationwide now say Congress should drop health care and focus on the economy. Seventy percent (70%) believe that the health care issue was at least somewhat important in Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts. Rasmussen Reports issued our final tracking poll for the proposed health care reform and found that 58% of voters remain opposed to the plan Congress was considering. That figure includes 50% who are Strongly Opposed.

The Presidential Approval Index is calculated by subtracting the number who Strongly Disapprove from the number who Strongly Approve. It is updated daily at 9:30 a.m. Eastern. Updates are also available on Twitter and Facebook.

Overall, 44% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President’s performance. That’s down four points since Tuesday morning and matches the lowest level of overall approval yet recorded for this President. Fifty-five percent (55%) of voters now disapprove. The number of Democrats who approve has fallen from 84% on Tuesday morning to 78% today (see other recent demographic highlights).

New polling released yesterday shows that the Governor’s race in California could be competitive. In Arizona’s Republican Primary, John McCain has opened a big lead over potential challenger J.D. Hayworth.

Forty-five percent (45%) of voters believe General Motors will need more government bailouts.

It is important to remember that the Rasmussen Reports job approval ratings are based upon a sample of likely voters. Some other firms base their approval ratings on samples of all adults. President Obama’s numbers are always several points higher in a poll of adults rather than likely voters. That’s because some of the President’s most enthusiastic supporters, such as young adults, are less likely to turn out to vote. It is also important to check the details of question wording when comparing approval ratings from different firms.

Daily tracking results are collected via telephone surveys of 500 likely voters per night and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. The margin of sampling error—for the full sample of 1,500 Likely Voters–is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.

Like all polling firms, Rasmussen Reports weights its data to reflect the population at large. Among other targets, Rasmussen Reports weights data by political party affiliation using a dynamic weighting process. While partisan affiliation is generally quite stable over time, there are a fair number of people who waver between allegiance to a particular party or independent status. Over the past five years, the number of Democrats in the country has increased while the number of Republicans has decreased.

Our baseline targets are established based upon separate survey interviews with a sample of adults nationwide completed during the preceding three months (a total of 45,000 interviews) and targets are updated monthly. Currently, the baseline targets for the adult population are 37.1% Democrats, 32.4% Republicans, and 30.5% unaffiliated. Likely voter samples typically show a slightly smaller advantage for the Democrats.