And the see saw polls continue. Over the past few days there have been some blog posts and Tweets about how Barack Obama’s poll numbers were going south. But according to Gallup’s latest, his approval rating is now at 50 percent — 3 points less than his 52 week high of 53 percent.
Look for the see saw polls to continue.
But what this means is: if his poll numbers are relatively high it does translate into clout when he’s dealing with the new Republican dominated House and a Senate with more GOPers. It means he has started regaining some independent voter support. The subgroup breakdown shows he has regained some independent support, some support from his own party and even one point of support from GOPers. Will some of these voters be pleased if the new GOP House becomes perceived as the Tea Party House and not a GOP House that happens to have Tea Party members but isn’t letting those new members control the party?
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.