That's racist.

"Hide the Decline"...

Notice also that these surveys are of "adults" - not even "registered voters" and certainly not "likely voters."

Traditionally, people who don't even register to vote skew towards the Democrats in opinion polling. So if a Democratic President is underwater among "all adults" in the country, his prospects are not good.

There is certainly time to turn it around - about a year, not longer, because even when the economy has completely changed direction it takes a few months to permeate public perception (as GHWB found out in 1992). But while Obama's team undoubtedly believed the economy would turn around on its own naturally and they would get credit for it because of their "stimulus" spending, their policies and anti-business and anti-energy attitudes have blocked the nascent recovery at every turn.

With Europe about to fall upon its own debt sword, prospects for robust growth in the next 12 months are not good.

Now there is an unnecessary additional reason to hope that the economy does not collapse.

That might be the dumbest political comment I've read this year. Are you really Bob Schrum?

Liberalism has 20% support at the most. That's why Obama ran the most successful moderate Republican campaign in history. One of the problems he will have next year is that there's no way people will believe that he will deliver a 'net tax cut' and a 'net spending reduction' considering he has spent his first term massively increasing spending and taxes.

Considering that the country continues to poll at around 40% Conservative, 20% Liberal, 40% moderate/independent I think its pretty clear that a referendum on conservatism vs liberalism strongly favors the conservatives. You only need to get 1/4 of the moderates to get you to 50%.

Republicans lose elections when they run fake democrats (like McCain) against real democrats - no one goes excited to vote for someone that doesn't stand for anything. Republicans win when we run strong conservatives against liberals.

You've got a point in your 3rd paragraph though. The D's have a huge advantage with their media backing. Obama and the Dems don't even have to portray the R's as dangerous ideologues - the media will do it for them. I've seen news anchors estimate that media support for D's is worth 15 points at the polls. Sounds about right to me. The internet and Fox News are just beginning the fight to level this playing field. One thing we CAN do next time is nominate someone with the backbone to go after Obama. McCain showed plenty of spine in his willingness to attack Romney, but when it came to Obama he bent over backwards to be 'honorable'. Palin was infinitely more effective at campaign rallies than McCain was. This is yet another reason why I think Romney (or, much worse, Huntsman) would be a lousy candidate for us this time around. I don't see Romney having the spine to really put the screws to Obama. Its just not in his nature.

And yet conservatives are so pessimistic about our chances in 2012. Obama is losing to Mitt Romney and "generic" Republican candidates handily with the MSM covering for him 24/7. Wait till the eventual GOP nominee and other conservative groups get to spend over a billion dollars on ads savaging Obama and his economic record, he won't be able to hide behind the fawning media any longer.

Also, I have a politically-incorrect theory that the only reason Obama's numbers are even in the 40's right now is because he's a black guy. If Biden was President right now, I absolutely guarantee you he would be in the mid-30's losing to a generic Republican by double digits. Will voters show that some deference once they're in the privacy of a voting booth where they won't be judged as racists for thinking Obama is incompetent? We'll see.