President Barack Obama has just hit a new low in popularity in public opinion polls, an alarming statistic for him and the Democratic Party!
Obama has dropped down to 42 percent, with 54 percent unhappy with his performance as President!
This is, obviously, not good news for him or his party, with every indication that the party will lose a large number of seats in Congress, and possibly lose the majority in one or both houses to the Republicans!
But it is not a guarantee by any means of what will happen, as polls have not been proved to be always an accurate reflection of what people will do on Election Day!
It also is a poor barometer of what will happen in the next Presidential election as shown by the following statistics:
September 1946–Harry Truman 32 percent rating
September 1978–Jimmy Carter 42 percent
September 1982–Ronald Reagan 42 percent
September 1994–Bill Clinton 42 percent
Realize that all of the above Presidents, despite their low public opinion rating at this point of their first term, went on to win another term as President, with the exception of Jimmy Carter!
So it is not time to write off Barack Obama by any means for 2012, and also at this point, there is no GOP potential nominee that has the backing or credentials that can be seen as presenting a real threat to the President!
But also recall that trying to predict the winner of the next Presidential election this far ahead of the contest is a losing proposition, as no one thought these future possibilities were reality at this point of a Presidential term:
Woodrow Wilson in 1910
Warren G. Harding in 1918
Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1930
Harry Truman in 1946
John F. Kennedy in 1958
Richard Nixon in 1966
Jimmy Carter in 1974
Ronald Reagan in 1978
Bill Clinton in 1990
Bill Clinton in 1994
Barack Obama in 2006
So the Presidential campaign truly begins right after the midterm elections are over on November 2, and there will be plenty to talk about, write about, and analyze about the perennial race for the White House!