OBAMA LEAST POPULAR AMONG LIVING PRESIDENTS – AT 8:32 A.M. ET:  The polling numbers for President Obama continue to decline, with nothing in prospect to reverse them.  From Breitbart: 

A new poll from Gallup indicates former U.S. President George W. Bush is six points higher in favorability than U.S. President Barack Obama.

The poll, the findings of which were released Saturday, show former President Bill Clinton has the highest favorability of all living former and current U.S. presidents, with 64 percent favorable opinion and 34 percent unfavorable.

Next up was the senior George Bush with a 63 percent favorable opinion and 31 percent unfavorable opinion. The younger Bush had 53 percent favorable and 44 percent unfavorable, Jimmy Carter was at 52 percent favorable and 32 percent unfavorable and finally Obama had 47 percent favorable and 52 percent unfavorable.

Obama was the only president that had a more unfavorable than favorable opinion.

COMMENT:  Now it is true that it's tough to measure a sitting president, whose decisions have immediate impact, against former presidents, who exist in the haze of nostalgia and memory.  But it is also true that Obama hasn't been above 50% in favorable ratings for some time.  In fact, this new Gallup poll ranks him a bit higher than virtually all other polls, which have him hovering in the low 40s.

Other presidents, when in office, have ranked lower, and some have done well in historical terms.  Truman was in the 20s when he departed the Oval Office, but is now ranked as one of our great or near-great presidents. 

The problem is that a sitting president must struggle in the here and now, and Obama has not only lost political support, he's lost personal support.  Many who were previously for him simply liked him.  They now realize he isn't that likable, and recent press reports and books attest to that.  Also, the notion of the first black president has worn thin.  Had Jackie Robinson performed poorly when he become the first black to play in the majors in 1947, the crowd would have turned on him.  But he performed superbly.  Barack Obama is performing miserably, and there doesn't appear to be a road back.

June 23,  2014