The Telegraph’s Nile Gardiner gives voice to a bad theme for Sen. Michael Bennet or any other Democrat with strong ties to President Obama’s administration: The president’s profligate spending and the emergence of a new ruling class that is out of touch with Americans:
Against this backdrop, the president’s approval ratings have been sliding dramatically all summer, with the latest Rasmussen Daily Presidential Tracking Poll of US voters dropping to minus 22 points, the lowest point so far for Barack Obama since taking office. While just 24 per cent of American voters strongly approve of the president’s job performance, almost twice that number, 46 per cent, strongly disapprove. According to Rasmussen, 65 per cent of voters believe the United States is going down the wrong track, including 70 per cent of independents.
The RealClearPolitics average of polls now has President Obama at over 50 per cent disapproval, a remarkably high figure for a president just 18 months into his first term. Strikingly, the latest USA Today/Gallup survey has the President on just 41 per cent approval, with 53 per cent disapproving.
None of which is good news for Obama, or Bennet.
Bennet has already begun the rhetorical separation from Obama, who flexed his extensive campaign prowess on Bennet’s behalf, including a huge fundraising appearance and rally in Denver in February partially designed to make Andrew Romanoff more isolated. He continued that support this summer, with robo-calls and a tele-town hall appearance.
Bennet’s apparent “rubber stamp” responsiveness to the Obama administration will make it difficult for the appointed senator to run too far from his record, if not his own party leader.
Bennet’s Republican opponent Ken Buck leads in the first post-primary poll issued by Rasmussen, 46-41. But the head-to-head veils a great deal of uncertainty and negativity within Colorado’s voting populace: 52 percent of Coloradans disapprove of Obama’s work as President, while 65 percent think the economy is in poor condition, with 50 percent believing economic conditions will deteriorate even further.