Issues moving against Obama, Democrats

Dick Morris:

At last, there is convincing evidence that Obama's poll numbers may be descending to earth. While his approval remains high - and his personal favorability is even higher - the underlying numbers suggest that a decline may be in the offing. Even as he stands on his pedestal, the numbers under his feet are crumbling.

According to a Rasmussen poll, more voters now trust Republicans more than Democrats to handle the economy, by a margin of 45-39. Scott Rasmussen notes that "this is the first time in over two years of polling that the GOP has held the advantage on this issue." Last month, he had the Democrats holding a one-point lead, but they lost it in June's polling.

And the Democratic leads over Republicans on their core issues are also dropping. Particularly interesting is the Democratic decline over healthcare, from an 18-point lead in May to only 10 points now.

A Gallup poll also confirms that the president's personal ratings are high, but the underlying data less so. While 67 percent of voters give Obama personal favorable ratings and 61 percent approve of his job performance (Rasmussen has his job approval lower, at 55 percent), they give him much lower ratings on specific issues.

Gallup shows Obama getting only 55 percent approval on his handling of the economy (down from 59 percent in February) and finds that only 45 percent approve of his handling of federal spending while 46 percent approve of his treatment of the budget deficit.

As it becomes clearer that the deficit caused by spending has landed us in a new economic crisis, entirely of Obama's own making, his popularity and job performance are likely to drop as well.

The old recession - that the public says was caused by Bush - shows signs of winding down. But the new recession and/or inflation - triggered by Obama's massive deficits - is just now coming upon us.

... he has three options:

a) He can raise taxes, which will trigger a deeper recession;

b) He can print money, which will trigger huge inflation;

c) He can pay more interest to borrow money, which will send the economy diving down again.

...

None of those options are attractive and they are all a result of the decision to try to spend our way out of the recession, rather than use the more rational approach of tax cuts. The Democrats and Obama have put themselves into this situation and they are now having to dela with the consequences.

Republicans can gain by cutting the stimulus spending and and reducing the taxes Democrats want to impose on the economy.