President 2012 Poll Watch: President Obama Job Approval Sinks to 41%

The latest Gallup Daily tracking three-day average shows 41% of Americans approving of the job Barack Obama is doing as president. That ties his low as president, which he registered three times previously — twice in August 2010 and once in October 2010.

Well, the economy is stagnant, unemployment is high, and Obama has started a third war in Libya which is dubious at best.

And, what does Obama do this week?

He resumes his class warfare rhetoric of the 2008 Presidential campaign and attacks Rep. Paul Ryan and his proposed budget.

The current 41% approval rating from April 12-14 polling includes interviews conducted before and after Obama announced his plan for deficit reduction on Wednesday. It also comes in the same week Congress is voting on the 2011 budget deal reached last Friday. The deal did not seem to have an immediate effect on the way Americans viewed Obama, given his 44% approval rating in the three days prior to the agreement and his 46% rating in the initial days after the agreement.

Should the President sink lower in the polls, the GOP will not have to worry whether they nominate Mitt Romney or Mike Huckbee. Obama will sink his own re-election efforts. Maybe both will be on the ticket.

President Obama is now as unpopular as he has been at any time since he became president. He faces difficult challenges ahead in trying to improve the economy and get the federal budget deficit under control, and must do so with Republicans in control of the House. His ability to navigate these challenges will help determine whether he will be elected to a second term as president. Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton all were similarly unpopular at this stage of their presidencies, but the last two were able to turn things around in time to win a second term in office.

Yeah, with Obama’s confrontational speech this week and the ramping up of his re-election effort in Chicago today, I doubt he is going to receive much cooperation from the GOP now until after the November 2012 election.

The Presidential campaign of 2012 has started.

Obama will have to make his case as to why he should be re-elected – or not.