Polls Find 3 of 4 Americans Saying Country's On Wrong Track

People keep talking about how dissatisfaction hasn't been this high since 2008 and the Wall Street bailout. But I'm thinking back to 1991, when President George H.W. Bush went from almost 90 percent approval on the Persian Gulf War to being defeated by Bill Clinton in 1992. At the Los Angeles Times a whopping 60 percent disapprove of President Obama's handling of the economy. There is no doubt that economic issues will be the number one priority for voters next year, so in California, a reliably blue state, those are horrible numbers for the Democrats. See: "Poll illustrates California voters' anger." Especially noteworthy about the Times' poll is that partisans on both sides are digging in their heels against compromise, with 57 percent of Democrats and 50 percent of Republicans backing a stand-firm position for their party's priorities. That's the anger factor right there. There's speculation that the summer's budget battle in Washington --- which Democrats lost --- has helped create a hardening of positions. This seems to go against suggestions that we should all just get along and work for the common good.

And today's Wall Street Journal poll is a keeper. See, "Voter Discontent Deepens Ahead of Obama Jobs Plan." (At Google as well.) Seventy-three percent say the country's headed in the wrong direction. But picking up on my discussion from yesterday on the Electoral College, this bit on Ohio is devastating for the White House:

Voters appear to be looking for a new direction. By 44% to 40%, Americans now say they are more likely to vote Republican next year than for Mr. Obama's re-election. In June, the president held the edge, 45% to 40%. The president is losing support from key groups including political independents, women and Hispanics.

In the Mahoning Valley of Northeast Ohio, a Democratic stronghold that Mr. Obama must win handily next year, the president can find all the hurdles that will impede his path: 10% unemployment, collapsing incomes, private-sector payrolls that have begun creeping back from the depths of early 2010 but which remain roughly 19,000 jobs down from a decade ago for the metropolitan area here.

The lukewarm support Mr. Obama finds here not only endangers his hopes in Ohio, one of the country's key swing states, but shows the erosion in enthusiasm for the president even among voters he should be able to reach and who he will need badly next year.

Bill Hiznay—a registered Democrat who voted for John McCain in 2008 and says he's currently undecided—says the president inherited the terrible U.S. economy, "But we're still going to blame Obama for our misfortunes." Mr. Hiznay, a 58-year-old pipe-mill worker, added: "He's in trouble, no question about it."

Among blue-collar workers nationally, the president's disapproval rating reached 56% last month. Some 49% of union members and union households disapprove of the job Mr. Obama is doing, vs. 45% who approve.

Blue collar America is turning against this administration. Not even three years after Barack Obama was elected as a man who could virtually walk on water, he's being repudiated viciously among voters from left to right. This helps explain why Democrats and union leaders are so combative. It's all slipping away. The mask of "hope and change" is falling off. The electorate's rose colored glasses are off too. I'm getting really excited for next year, no matter who wins the GOP nomination.