Obama's Approval Rating Sinks to 30s, Past 'Psychological Threshold'

President Barack Obama's approval rating sank into the 30s Tuesday, crossing a "psychological threshold" for the first time since he took office in 2009, new poll averages showed.

According to the Real Clear Politics average, the president's rating slipped to 39.8 percent, while his disapproval number rose to 55.9 percent.

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Obama posted an anemic 40 percent approval rating Monday, according to the Real Clear Politics average, but the Tuesday low was noted as Obama's crossing "the psychological threshold into the thirties," Breitbart news noted.

Obama's job approval drop has been precipitous since the beginning of the year, the Real Clear Politics averages show.

On Jan. 3, the president had a 53.4 percent approval rating, according to the RCP average graph; 42.1 percent disapproved of the president's job performance.

Obama's approval rating roughly corresponds with that of Bush's second term, The Washington Examiner noted Saturday.

And in an interview with ABC, the president conceded that the Obamacare rollout had taken a toll on his approval ratings.

"I've gone up and down pretty much consistently throughout," Obama said. "But the good thing about when you're down is that usually you got nowhere to go but up."

The Washington Examiner opinion writer Byron York notes the president's optimistic take might have been a little premature.

There's "no reason Obama's job approval numbers have to follow Bush's downward path ..." York wrote.

"Down is also a very real possibility," he added.

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