NO BAMA BOUNCE - AT 6:19 P.M. ET:  Earlier in the week I arrogantly assumed that President Obama would get a popularity bounce from the Navy rescue of Captain Phillips.  Strangely, it hasn't happened.  Today's Rasmussen tracker shows the same spread between approval and disapproval - 55-44 percent - that we've seen for four days.  Just as significant, Ras's presidential approval index, the spread between those who strongly approve and those who strongly disapprove, stands at only two points, 35-33 percent, matching the lowest numbers Obama has received.  Those numbers were registered Monday and Tuesday.

So, unless there's a change tomorrow, we will conclude, at least on the basis of this one survey, that the people of the country gave Mr. Obama no credit for a role in the rescue.

April 15, 2009