These new results from Gallup’s survey of presidential approval make me a lot less bullish about President Obama’s chances for re-election:

Last week, I noted the extent to which the public still holds President Bush and the Republican Party responsible for the current state of the economy. According to the latest CNN/ORC poll, not only is this still true -- 57 percent of all voters say they think President Bush and the GOP are responsible for the country’s economic woes -- but the number is higher than it was several months ago. In May of this year, 55 percent said that Bush and Republicans were responsible, compared to September of last year, where 53 percent agreed. Most important, this is still true among independents -- 53 percent lay blame for the current economy on the former administration.
That said, Obama doesn’t have much room to maneuver with regards to the economy; 59 percent of Americans are pessimistic about the country’s economic future. If Obama can’t count on high personal approval numbers, then he needs to show independents that he’s the only one interested in representing their interests, hence his ongoing attempt to portray himself as the reasonable man in the room, with Republican extremism to his right and Democratic fecklessness to this left.