The Washington Post-ABC News poll that was not included in the RCP average is from Oct 15-18. That is about 2 and 1/2 weeks ago.

That is why the RCP did not include it and why I stated that when the new polls come out Obama is bond is go up some.

There is a point in which the polls numbers become outdated.

I hadn't looked at this thread, but it's up to 13 pages now. And it's all just updating competing poll results on approval/disapproval ratings. Every bloody month.

Look, he's going to be in power for 3 more years before the next election. Is somebody here getting paid to keep reviving a pointless thread about a topic that not even the 24 hour news cycle thinks is newsworthy?

Seems it was an interesting topic when Obama was at his peak for some but now it seems that it a mute point .What is interesting is the things that seem to have pulled him down in the polls, such as Health Care.It was during the summer when Obama and the Democrats were fighting so hard for health care that Obama's polls sank the most.

I don't know his approval ratings according the http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_obama_job_approval-1044.html#polls look really steady !

Being in the mid 60s to 70s at the beginning and then falling more than any president in 50 years in not what most would call steady.

Michelle Obama's poll numbers slide By NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON | 11/9/09 7:02 PM EST
When Michelle Obama moved into the White House, she instantly became one of the most famous first ladies in history, a symbol of racial pride, a victor in the battle of the sexes and the picture of a modern woman, mother and wife.

But from her days on the campaign trail to her residency in the White House, Obama’s favorability rating has been in flux, from a low of 48 percent in June 2008 to a peak of 72 percent last March to a slide to 61 percent in a recent Gallup Poll.

That 11-point stumble – some might call it a tumble – seems at odds with the focus of a White House publicity team that is carefully crafting her image and building a decidedly current, wholesome, upbeat brand. But while Obama has broadened the reach of her office, White House observers say that the role and projects she has embraced so far are seen by some as disappointingly traditional.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29347.html

AP-GfK Poll: Country in a funk
By LIZ SIDOTI, AP National Political Writer Liz Sidoti, Ap National Political Writer
1 hr 52 mins ago

WASHINGTON – The euphoria of 2008 is over: America is in a funk.

Elected last November on a wave of optimism, President Barack Obama now finds himself governing an increasingly pessimistic country while trying to revive a struggling economy, muscling a health care reform overhaul through Congress and weighing more troops for the 8-year-old Afghanistan war.

The latest Associated Press-GfK poll shows that Americans grew slightly more dispirited on a range of matters over the past month, continuing slippage that has occurred since Obama took office.

People were more pessimistic about the direction of the country than in October. They disapproved of Obama's handling of the economy a bit more than before. And, perhaps most striking for this novice commander in chief, more people have lost confidence in Obama on Iraq and Afghanistan over the last month. Overall, there's a malaise about the state of the nation.

"It's in pretty bad shape," said truck driver Floyd Hacker of Granby, Mo., a Democrat who voted for Obama. "He sounded like somebody who could make things happen. I still think he can."

Still, Hacker said, he questions the president's approach to the economy, what the U.S. is trying to accomplish in Afghanistan, and Obama's focus on health care, adding: "He can't handle everything at one time."

Public attitudes like that are troubling for a president trying to accomplish an ambitious agenda at home while fighting wars abroad, as well as for a Democratic Party heading into a critical election year. It will look to stave off losses a new president typically experiences in his first midterms. A third of the Senate, all of the House and most governors' offices will be on the ballot.

The findings underscore just how quickly the political environment can change, a lesson in cautiousness for out-of-power Republicans salivating at the murky state of the electorate and buzzing with energy after booting Democrats from rule in Virginia and New Jersey governors' races last week.

It was just over a year ago that Obama won the White House in an electoral landslide and Democrats padded their congressional majorities. The country was riding high with optimism by just about all measures when Obama took office in January.

Hope and change were in vogue back then. But change didn't happen overnight, as the rhetoric of campaigning crashed headlong into the realities of governing. And hope slipped in a country that always has clung to it.

Now, Obama's approval rating stands at 54 percent, roughly the same as in October but very different from what it was in January just before he took office, 74 percent. And some 56 percent of people say the country is heading in the wrong direction, an uptick from 51 percent last month and 49 percent in Obama's first month as president.

The economy is by far the most important issue on Americans' minds. Unemployment hit 10.2 percent last month even though the administration has promoted glimmers of improvement and most economists say the recession is over.

Those jobless figures help explain why as many people said the economy got worse in the past month as said it got better — and it's not many people who thought it got better, just 22 percent. Most say the economy stayed the same and just 46 percent approve of the way Obama is handling the economy, compared with 50 percent last month.

"He did good on getting Wall Street up and running. But I'm not going," said independent Jay Huffaker, 33, of Knoxville, Tenn., a construction worker who has been unemployed for a year and a half. The country is in terrible shape, he said, adding: "It seems like it's getting worse and worse and worse and worse."

America also has grown more lukewarm on Obama and the wars as he tries to wind down the one in Iraq and considers ramping up the one in Afghanistan.

Compared with October, 45 percent of people now disapprove of Obama's handling of Iraq, up from 37 percent, while 48 percent now disapprove of his handling of Afghanistan, up from 41 percent — a majority of people in the country opposes both wars. And more than half — 54 percent — now oppose sending more troops to Afghanistan, an increase from 50 percent last month.

"We either need to do something to win the wars, or just come home," said Republican Heather Johannessen, a stay-at-home mom in the suburbs of Minnesota's Twin Cities, who thinks the U.S. is in a holding pattern in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

On health care, about half of the country approves of how Obama is doing on his signature domestic issue — virtually unchanged from October. In a major victory for Obama, the House passed a sweeping reform of the U.S. medical system over the weekend. But the fate of the measure is uncertain in the Senate, where moderate Democrats who are necessary for passage are balking at the cost and various provisions.

Only a third of the country approves of how Congress is doing.

The AP-GfK Poll was conducted Nov. 5-9 by GfK Roper Public Affairs and Media. It involved landline and cell phone interviews with 1,006 adults nationwide, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091111/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_ap_poll_8

Generic Congressional Ballot
Republicans Jump to Six-Point Lead on Generic Ballot
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Republican candidates have stretched their lead over Democrats to six points in the Generic Congressional Ballot.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 43% would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate while 37% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent. Republicans have held the lead for over four months now.
Voters not affiliated with either party continue to heavily favor Republicans, 43% to 20%.
Since late June, support for Republican candidates has ranged from 41% to 44%, while support for Democrats has run from 36% to 40%. Looking back one year ago, the two parties were in a much different place. Throughout the fall of 2008, support for Democratic congressional candidates ranged from 42% to 47%. Republican support ranged from 37% to 41%.
But in October, for the third straight month, the number of Americans identifying themselves as Democrats inched up while the number of Republicans fell slightly.
While other polling firms appear to show different results on the generic ballot, Real Clear Politics explains the differences in survey samples and question ordering, stating “if you are asking which pollsters have it right, I'd probably put my money on Gallup-Rasmussen.”
Still, the steady support for Republican congressional candidates may help explain why 49% of U.S. voters now say it is at least somewhat likely that Republicans will win control of Congress next year. But only 18% say it is very likely. Fifty-two percent (52%) say Republicans are the party most likely to gain seats in Congress in next year’s mid-term elections, though.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/generic_congressional_ballot

Ipsos/McClatchy Poll ---I know it is a long way off, but thinking about the elections in 2010, if the election for U.S. Congress were held today, would you vote for the Democratic candidate or the Republican candidate in your district where you live? (IF “CANDIDATE FROM ANOTHER PARTY/WILL NOT/DO NOT PLAN TO VOTE/DK/REF”, ASK: If you had to choose, would you lean more towards the Democratic candidate or the Republican candidate?)*
Initial Democratic candidate......................... ..... 43
Lean Democratic candidate......................... ..... 5
Total Democratic candidate......................... ..... 48
Initial Republican candidate......................... ..... 36
Lean Republican candidate......................... ..... 6
Total Republican candidate......................... ..... 41
(Candidate from another political party) .............. 2
(Will not/do not plan to vote) ......................... .... 3
(Not sure)......................................... ...... .... ...... . 6
http://www.ipsos-na.com/news/client/act_dsp_pdf.cfm?name=4582-1tb1.pdf&id=4582

38. One last issue question: If the election for the U.S. House of Representatives in November 2010 were being held today, would you vote for (the Democratic candidate) or the Republican candidate) in your congressional district? (IF OTHER, NEITHER, DK, REF) Would you lean toward the (Democratic candidate) or toward the (Republican candidate)?
10/18/09 All 51% Dem 39% Rep 1% Other 3% neither 2% Won't Vote 5% No opinion
http://abcnews.go.com/images/PollingUnit/1095a2HealthCareandPolitics.pdf)

When public opinion changes, how closely do policies follow?

The answer is central to democratic theory. The principal of popular sovereignty implies some degree of dynamic policyresponsiveness; a new policy is enacted because mass opinion became supportive of that newpolicy. While dynamic models of policy responsiveness have been tested at the national level,much less is known about the American states. This is an important shortcoming, particularly inlight of evidence that state public opinion is directly responsible for policy differences across thefifty states. I advance our knowledge about dynamic policy responsiveness at the sub-national level bymeasuring the longitudinal variation in state public opinion on different policy areas and linkingthese measures to various policy outputs at the state level. The dissertation is divided into twoparts. Part I concentrates on the measurement of state public opinion across a variety ofdomestic issues over time. I show that multilevel modeling coupled with imputation and post-stratification (Park, Gelman, & Bafumi 2004) can be used to measure public opinion over timewhen augmented by a small (three year) moving average. Part II uses these dynamic measures totest two models of policy responsiveness at the sub-national level: the thermostatic model andthe simple responsiveness model. The thermostatic model of policy responsiveness suggests thatpublic opinion and policy exist in equilibrium; small incremental changes in public opinionproduce small shifts in policy and vice versa (Erikson, MacKuen, & Stimson 2002; Wlezien1995). Small shifts in policy elicit small changes in public opinion as the public reacts togovernment activity. The simple responsiveness model posits that public opinion directlyinfluences policy, not vice versa (Norrander 2000). I use incremental policy changes (such asthose related to spending) to test the thermostatic model and episodic policy changes (such as theadoption of smoking bans) to test the simple responsiveness model. The intellectual merit of the project is the explicit incorporation of state public opinion intomodels of policy adoption and policy change. State politics scholars have advanced ourknowledge about how public opinion influences policy differences across the states. Yet, thebulk of this work has focused on the cross-sectional correlation between public opinion andpolicy instead of the dynamic relationship between state residents’ preferences and policyoutputs. My project is the first to (1) measure state public opinion over time, (2) incorporatedynamic measures of state public opinion to the study of policy responsiveness, and (3) considerhow the model of responsiveness depends on the particular policy. Hence, the dissertationadvances our understanding not only of whether dynamic policy responsiveness exists across thestates, but also how the link between opinion and policy varies across policy types andinstitutional factors.

]/quote]

See link for the full disertation:
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:hpOL2DXOJe8J:polisci.la.psu.edu/graduate/Pacheco_Writing_Sample_2.pdf+dissertation+accuracy+of+polls&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

The last time the GOP was this bad in CNN's polling was in December 1998, in the heat of the impeachment battles, when they were at 31%-57%.

And if I can't buy insurance, what options do I have besides going on the government dole? This question has not been answered by my own elected officials.

It is cheaper to offer an affordable plan which I can pay for if it is not astonomical, than to send me to the ER for more costly and more radical treatment

Approval Index rating of -10

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 30% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty percent (40%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -10

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 30% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty percent (40%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -10