Just 23% of Likely U.S. Voters say the country is heading in the right direction, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey taken the week ending Sunday, March 20.

This is up one point from last week’s result, which was the lowest measured since President Obama took office in 2009.

Seventy-one percent (71%) of voters now say the country is heading down the wrong track, down a point from last week. Fifty-two percent (52%) of Democrats feel this way, compared to 88% of Republicans and 74% of voters not affiliated with either major political party.

Ohio voters are split 45 - 46 percent on whether President Barack Obama deserves a second term, but they favor him over an unnamed Republican 2012 challenger 41 - 34 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

President Obama has a split 47 - 48 percent job approval rating, compared to 49 - 46 percent in a January 20 survey by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, who also faces re-election in 2012, is in better shape with Ohio registered voters, who prefer Brown over an unnamed GOP challenger 45 - 29 percent. Voters also say 45 - 30 percent that he deserves a second term in the U.S. Senate.

"There is little change in President Barack Obama's approval rating in Ohio, which historically has been among the most important swing states in presidential elections, as he's hovering about where he was during most of 2010," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "The small lead over an unnamed Republican and the split verdict on whether he deserves another term indicate that, as has been the case in most presidential elections over recent decades, Ohio will be closely contested.

"It is also clear that despite misgivings about his policies, President Obama remains personally popular with Ohioans," said Brown. Given four choices to describe their feelings about Obama:

* 43 percent like him personally and like his policies;
* 30 percent like him personally but not his policies;
* 1 percent like his policies but not him;
* 21 percent don't like him or his policies.

Taken together, 73 percent of voters like Obama, but only 44 percent like his policies.

Btw, as he continues stumbling, bumbling and fumbling through every crisis tossed his way, I think his odds of re-election go down. You can't name a crisis that he's handled well because it doesn't exist

Guapo wrote:

Minister X wrote:I chose to use median so a few outliers wouldn't yield a false sense of variation.

I'm curious if in your research that there were any outliers on the democratic side as far away from the standard deviations as Ron Paul probably is on the Republican side. Any information on that?

Guapo wrote:

Minister X wrote:There's almost nothing left of the Rockefeller Republicans, and Jay Rockefeller is a Democrat.

I'm not sure that this is really defensible. Just because there's no actual Rockefeller leading the charge, the Republicans certainly moved his direction. Would you really argue that today's Republican platform is more Goldwater than Rockefeller, or did I miss what you were saying?

RUFFHAUS 8 wrote:

Minister X wrote:George H.W. Bush was a Rockefeller Republican who saw the writing on the wall. He tried ("voodoo economics") to sustain that wing but ended up converting ("no new taxes") and then betraying (new taxes).

The latter part of your comment here is a half truth, and another intellectually dishonest distorition of the facts.

RUFFHAUS 8 wrote:It the opposition is narrow minded, why does it bother you so much?

rickyp wrote:steve

Btw, as he continues stumbling, bumbling and fumbling through every crisis tossed his way, I think his odds of re-election go down. You can't name a crisis that he's handled well because it doesn't exist

.

I'm not sure your views are a good weather vane of American opinion Steve,

As for the economy. If it improves, and it seems to be improving, he'll probably get a higher approval.

Minister X wrote:[I'm bothered by the increasing narrow-mindedness of the GOP for two reasons: 1) it leaves me out in the cold because I can't join the Dem party - I'm lonely,

and 2) I think it's dangerous. The GOP is becoming the anti-science party; that will eventually cause the USA to be less competitive in the world economy. The GOP is becoming the party of intolerance - to gays, immigrants, moderate Muslims, agnostics/atheists, intellectuals, and "experts" of all stripes. This makes everything smaller in every way.