President Barack Obama's approval ratings with the public "are setting off alarm bells for Democrats — and for good reasons," Republican political strategist Karl Rove wrote in
The Wall Street Journal.
The " most telling data point" was the
Washington Post-ABC News poll where 53 percent of Americans said Republicans should run the next Congress to counterbalance the president's policies, Rove wrote.
Obama's diminishing job approval numbers and the dissatisfaction opinion surveys reveal about his handling of the economy suggest that voters are unhappy with the president's party as well, according to the strategist.
Urgent: Do You Approve Or Disapprove of President Obama's Job Performance? Vote Now in Urgent Poll
The Post-ABC poll showed Obama's approval rating at a record 41 percent low. A poll by
The Wall Street Journal and NBC News put the president's approval figure at 44 percent, 3 points above his low in October, Rove wrote.
On key opinion indicators, the president is less popular today than he was in 2010 when Republicans took control of the U.S. House of Representatives, according to Rove.
"Forty-five percent of Americans in the Washington Post/ABC News poll say they intend to vote for Democratic candidates this fall, compared with 44 percent who say they'll vote for Republicans. Again, context matters: Democrats led by five points on this question in the October 2010 Washington Post/ABC News poll, shortly before the Republicans' smashing midterm victories," writes Rove.
History suggests that it is unlikely Obama will recover politically before November, the strategist wrote. The only president who saw his popularity genuinely rise before his second midterm elections was Republican Dwight Eisenhower in 1958, he said. Even that bump didn't save his party from massive losses in both chambers, Rove wrote.
Obama's strategy is to emphasize issues that speak to his base – minimum wage, equal pay, and sexual assaults on campus, according to Rove.
Republicans would be wise to do more than just criticize Obama, Rove said. They should present their own agenda for governing that speaks to the concerns of ordinary people, the middle class in particular.
"The Republican Party is the minority party, which means that this election is precisely the time for the GOP to move beyond obstructionism and show that it has the answers Americans want," Rove wrote.
Urgent: Do You Approve Or Disapprove of President Obama's Job Performance? Vote Now in Urgent Poll
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