Obama’s ratings as against leadership

Adam posted yesterday on David Brooks New York Times article on the Democrats and their suicide march. In his article Brooks referred to a Washington Post-ABC News Poll.

Here is the graphic of approval ratings for Obama since inauguration.

Obama Approval Rating since inauguration - Washington Post graphic

More poll data here

Yet in response to:-

Do you approve or disapprove of the way (ITEM) are doing their job?

7/18/09 - Summary Table

                                 Approve   Disapprove   No opinion
a. The Democrats in Congress       47          48            5
b. The Republicans in Congress     36          58            6

We can see that ratings for the Democratic party are not as strong as for Obama, whose own ratings have been falling. Though given the inflated expectations of many when he came to office that is perhaps inevitable.

In addition this perhaps shows as well the problems that a  President, especially a Democrat, faces when his party controls both the Senate and the Congress.

Resulting from JC’s comment, see thread, Adam has included this additional extract from the Poll Data:-

Generally speaking, do you usually think of yourself as (a Democrat), (a Republican), an independent or what? IF NOT DEMOCRAT OR REPUBLICAN: Do you lean more towards the (Democratic Party) or (Republican Party)?

                                                             --Non-Partisans-
                                                             Lean  Lean   No
           Democrat  Republican  Independent  Other  No op.  Dem.  Rep.  Lean
7/18/09       33         22           41        4      *      20    16     9
6/21/09       35         22           37        7      *      17    16    10

At the time of Obama’s election Adam wrote a post, which perhaps he should now claim as prescient, on ‘The real foe‘ in which he noted an article in the WSJ which pointed out :-

Now that Barack Obama has vanquished John McCain, he faces a much greater foe: Democrats on Capitol Hill. They’ve humbled the last two Democratic Presidents — and with their enhanced majorities next year, they’ll be out to do it again

For Adam went on to write, here is the prescient bit:-

Much will depend on whether President Obama chooses to govern, or continues to act is if he is running for office. On that only time will tell.

Well only yesterday Adam pointed out how in various ways Obama was failing to lead. More and more we see rhetoric as a substitute for substance, gestures rather than attention to the things that really matter.