WHERE OBAMA STANDS – AT 9:34 A.M. ET:  He stands as one of the most polarizing presidents on record, according to a new poll reported in The Politico:

President Barack Obama’s approval ratings during his second year in office were the most partisan and polarized they’ve ever been at two years into a presidency, with a nearly 70 percentage point gap between how Republicans and Democrats evaluated his performance.

Obama’s approval among Republicans averaged just 13 percent, while Democrats’ approval of Obama’s second year averaged 81 percent.

The 68-point differential is the fourth-largest on record, behind years four, five and six of George W. Bush’s presidency, when the partisan gap was between 70 and 76 points. Gallup’s data reaches back to 1954-1955, Dwight D. Eisenhower’s second year in office.

Before Obama, only Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton saw gaps of more than 50 percentage points between Republicans’ and Democrats’ approval during their second years in office. Between January 1982 and January 1983, Reagan’s approval averaged 79 percent among Republicans and 23 percent among Democrats – a 56 percentage point difference. Clinton’s approval averaged 19 percent among Republicans and 73 percent among Democrats between January 1994 and January 1995, a 54-point margin.

COMMENT:  Obama is making a concerted effort to appear centrist these days.  That may work for a time, but two things will clearly be decisive in next year's presidential election.  (Yes, I said next year's.)  Those are the state of the economy and the choice of a Republican nominee.

This morning's job report was mediocre.  Canada, a country whose population is only 33.7 million, created 69,200 jobs last month.  The U.S. created 36,000.

The excuse brigade is out in force in D.C. this morning saying our poor performance was due to the cold weather.  Have any of these gents noticed where Canada is located?  So what did they have up there in January?  A heat wave?  Calling Al Gore.

February 4, 2011