OBAMA GAINS IN POLL - AT 10:16 A.M. ET:  Rasmussen reports:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Saturday shows that 32% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-five percent (35%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -3. That’s the President’s best Approval Index rating in nearly a month and matches his best rating since early July.

Forty-three percent (43%) give the President good or excellent marks on national security matters and 30% say he is governing on a bi-partisan basis.

Most voters say a middle class tax cut is more important than new spending on health care.

COMMENT:  The polling was done before announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize.  Some analysts report that the president's poll numbers stabilized in September.

My own sense is that the improvement is due largely to the decline in the number who "strongly disapprove."  Liberalism has a very strong base that will always "strongly approve" of any liberal office holder, especially a minority office holder.  That base, I estimate, is in the 25-28 percent range.  It is very difficult to drive the "strongly approve" number for a liberal president below that base.

The combat for conservatives is to make sure the liberals don't get the extra 22-25 points needed, beyond the base, for an electoral victory.  Conservatives failed last year.  It must not happen again.

October 10, 2009