Dog Days of Obama

By CHARLES M. BLOW
NYT

This summer has not been kind to this president.

A CBS News poll released on Tuesday found that “a majority of Americans have a negative impression of the economy and expect the effects of the recession to linger for years.”

One of the most stinging findings: “Only 13 percent of Americans say Mr. Obama’s economic programs, among them the stimulus package, have helped them personally. Twenty-three percent say they have hurt, while 63 percent say they have had no effect.” Ouch. That’s an abysmal favorability return on an enormous financial investment.

A Gallup poll released on Friday found that satisfaction with the direction of the country among members of the president’s own party has dropped by a fourth since last month.

The BP disaster poisoned the waters of the gulf and sent saddening waves of tar balls and dead animals washing up onto its beaches. One of the president’s responses was to call for a moratorium on new deep-water drilling. Not cool, say gulf residents. An ABC News/Washington Post poll released on Wednesday found that 3 in 5 residents from the areas most affected disapproved of the moratorium and 7 in 10 disapproved of the government’s overall response to the disaster.

(More here.)