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According to the latest PPP Poll.

Job approval Vs Disapproval:

• President Obama: 48% Vs. 47% (45% Vs. 49% in December 2010)

Favorable Vs. Unfavorable:

• Mitt Romney – 39% Vs. 39%
• Mike Huckabee – 40% vs. 39%
• Jeb Bush – 44% Vs. 44%
• Newt Gingrich 32% Vs. 48%
• Sarah Palin – 32% Vs. 60%
• Rudy Giuliani – 37% vs. 46%

Head to Head:

• Obama – 46% Vs. Romney – 44%
• Obama – 50% Vs. Huckabee – 43%
• Obama – 50% Vs. Gingrich – 42%
• Obama – 48% Vs. Bush – 44%
• Obama – 48% Vs. Giuliani – 42%
• Obama – 52% Vs. Palin – 39%

Fianlly, a good poll for Mitt Romney. But, Mike Huckabee is hanging in there and may give him pause as Huck decides whether to run or not.

Another disastrous poll for Sarah Palin (60% unfavorables) as she fades from being considered a serious candidate for the Presidency in 2012.

Interesting that former Florida Governor Jeb Bush does not do any better than Mitt Romney in this poll.

The GOP NEEDS to win Florida in order to beat President Obama in the Electoral College. It appears the tried and true candidates of Huckabee and/or Romney may very well provide the opportunity.

Political pundits have been wondering if the Tea Party was going to lay down in Wisconsin after the Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Vs. Democrat Legislators Fleebaggers Flap.

The ansewr is NO.

These are my links for March 31st from 09:42 to 10:37:

• Sen. Marco Rubio Takes the Lead on Libya – THE WEEKLY STANDARD has obtained the text of a letter freshman senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) sent tonight to the Senate majority and minority leaders. In it, Rubio proposes that the Senate authorize the president’s use of force in Libya, and that the authorization state that the aim of the use of force should be the removal of the Qaddafi regime. (The full text of the letter is below.)

  This is by far the boldest move Rubio has made—it’s perhaps the boldest move any freshman senator has made—in the three months since the beginning of the 112th Congress. Rubio is taking on those in his own party who wish to distance themselves from what they consider Obama’s war in Libya. He is answering critics of the war who have tried to cast a vague sense of illegitimacy over the action because Congress hasn’t explicitly authorized it. And Rubio is trying to push the administration into fully embracing regime change as an explicit goal, thus providing a compelling clarity for American military action—a clarity that he thinks will increase support for the effort at home and the chances of success on the ground.

  =======

  Ill-advised political move giving President Obama political cover.

• Poll Watch: What’s behind Tea Party approval numbers – But let’s unpack all that. First, the poll is of all Americans (generally a sign of a leftward-tilt in results), not registered or likely voters. Second, while the poll asserts that half of all American households make under $50,000, the electorate is very different. In the 2010 exit polls, only 36 percent of voters had household incomes less than $50,000. These people voted Democratic (54 percent), while the electorate as a whole voted for Republicans over Democrats by a wide margin. And for non-white voters with incomes under $50,000 the Democratic tilt was even more dramatic (80 percent voted Democratic). Among those who voted for Democrats, 86 percent had a negative view of the Tea Party.

  CNN hasn’t released the underlying data, so we don’t know if the drop in support among low-income respondents is simply a reflection of increased animosity by Democrats or a rally-’round- Obama phenomenon by minority voters who still favor the president to a greater degree than the electorate as a whole. Moreover, we don’t know whether the poll over-sampled the very groups most likely to have negative views of the Tea Party.

  But if the Tea Party’s favorable rating dropped only 5 percentage points since December — nearly within the poll’s margin of error — then the grass-roots movement must be doing pretty darn well with the rest of the respondents (that is, those with incomes over $50,000 who made up 64 percent of the 2010 electorate).

  It’s hard to figure why the results reflect “a reaction to the tea party’s push for large cuts in government programs that help lower-income Americans.” Was that question asked? Or is that pure speculation? That assertion is even more odd in that the cuts the Tea Party generally embraces — e.g. means-testing Social Security — AREN’T aimed at the poor.

  What we do know is that the electorate as a whole and the Congress including Senate Democrats have accepted the Tea Party’s core message of deficit reduction and spending restraint. But if liberals want to keep on discounting the importance of the Tea Party, and more important, the message of the Tea Party, I am sure fiscal conservatives would be delighted.

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  Read it all.

  Without the underlying data, the CNN poll on the Tea party looks like an outlier at best and a fraud at worst.

America’s unemployment rate was down in March 2011 and down from March 2010 as measured by Gallup.

Unemployment, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, was 10.0% in March — down from 10.2% in mid-March and 10.3% at the end of February, but above the 9.8% at the end of January. U.S. unemployment was 10.4% at the end of March a year ago.

What about the percentage of part-time workers?

And, underemployment also declined in March.

But, what does this mean? Is America’s economy improving?

Not according to Gallup.

ADP on Wednesday reported that U.S. private-sector jobs increased by 201,000 in March — the third consecutive month at this level of job growth. At the same time, Challenger, Gray & Christmas showed a sharp decline in March U.S. layoffs compared with last year. All of this is consistent with Gallup’s Job Creation Index, which has shown slightly more jobs being created and comparatively low layoffs during the first quarter of 2011.

However, contrary to the federal government’s recent job reports, Gallup’s unemployment and underemployment measures suggest that recent job increases have not been sufficient to significantly improve the jobs situation so far in 2011. Although both of Gallup’s measures were marginally better in March, they remain higher now than they were in January.

The March improvement in the jobs situation compared with February may be partly the result of seasonal hiring patterns, with companies increasing their hiring at this time of year. However, the 2010 jobs situation didn’t show substantial improvement until the second half of April. Regardless, the decline in the underemployment rate year-over-year is consistent with a cautious hiring approach in which employers avoid layoffs while taking on more part-time workers and limiting their hiring of full-time employees.

Despite the March uptick, Gallup’s view of the U.S. jobs situation remains substantially less optimistic than the government’s recent unemployment report might suggest. Added to this, late March Gallup Daily tracking results show a continuing decline in economic optimism, a pullback in consumer spending, and a drop in Gallup’s Job Creation Index. This suggests that recent behavior on Main Street does not reflect the government’s rosier assessment. It also implies that the recent marginal improvement Gallup finds may be more temporary than one might hope.

Looks like the Obama Administration is spinning the numbers to creat some economic optimism but too many Americans remain out of work and economic activity remains stagnant at best.

These are my links for March 31st from 01:21 to 08:42:

• President 2012 New Jersey Poll Watch: Mike Huckabee Running Even with President Obama | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – President 2012 New Jersey Poll Watch: Mike Huckabee Running Even with President Obama #tcot #catcot
• @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-03-31 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – @Flap Twitter Updates for 2011-03-31 #tcot #catcot
• Flap’s Links and Comments for March 30th on 20:19 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Links and Comments for March 30th on 20:19 #tcot #catcot
• Republican leaders say, ‘No deal yet’ – Right Turn – The Washington Post – Republican leaders say, ‘No deal yet’ – Right Turn – The Washington Post
• Flap’s Links and Comments for March 30th on 19:46 | Flap’s Blog – FullosseousFlap’s Dental Blog – Flap’s Links and Comments for March 30th on 19:46 | Flap's Blog – FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog