I could be wrong but I suspect that a lot of the panic to push forward Obama's agenda is because of how poor his approval rating has become. I don’t think there has been a president in recent history who’s approval rating has fallen as far, as fast, or to such a low level as Obama’s has in their first term. One important thing to understand about American politics is that if a president is popular enough few people will oppose him, and if he is unpopular enough few people will support him, and at the rate things are going by the end of the year every senator and member of congress will be doing everything in their power to distance themselves from Obama.

Right now most Republicans see bipartisanship as being a losing strategy for their political careers, and more and more conservative Democrats are seeing Obama as being more of a liability than anything else. Within the next couple of weeks Obama's support could fall to a level that he won't have the votes to continue his agenda.

Now, the ironic thing is that his approval rate is falling so quickly because people voted against George W. Bush's agenda (and not for Obama's agenda) and the speed and scale of the changes that Obama is making do not sit well with them.

Have you got any graphical representations of his fall? Like month-on-month, I was actually wondering about this earlier.

So Obama's approval-rate has fallen from 69% to 56% in 6 months. If you feel like comparing, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Presidential_approval_rating has a nice overview.

Just with a quick look, I must correct HappySqurriel, Gerald Fords rate fell even faster (it even looks like, that this is a common thing for democrats).

Thanks, fmc83

Wow, look at George Bush's, from 90% to 25% - I wonder if they included the views of black Floridians in that 90% statistic.

Seems like I'm the only person in the world who didn't think he was a terrible President. I mean, he wasn't brilliant, but I did agree with a few (very few) of his policies. Plus, in a weird way, his mistakes made him seem more... human, well, at least in my eyes.

Don't forget the press had it's own motives when reporting on Bush.

Polling is a piss poor substitution for reality. Were it truly effective then no politician would need to worry about losing their jobs. Yet they readily lose their jobs every single year. In fact you could say that politicians follow polls to their graves. The problem with polling isn't that it is a inexact science it usually isn't a science at all. The techniques are so easily bent to serve biases, and as a rule they are not effective gauges.

The reality is that you have a binary process trying to predict the motivations of beings that by their nature only work in composites. Human beings really do think in shades of gray. Polling has a huge margin of error, because large amounts of people reside in the bulk they are just tilting back and forth. Basically if you force them to make a choice they will, but in a few hours they could be leaning the other way. The worst thing you can do is ask them how they are feeling.

Polling can be quite effective if you ask someone for concrete details, once you enter the vague realm of feelings however your entering the realm of whim. I remember a statistical study where people in a city were polled about whether they liked their mayor or not. They did a survey at the end of the week, and then early in the next week. Somehow the mayors approval rating took a ten point hit despite nothing political having happened. In fact they did these surveys while the mayor and most of the government was on vacation.

What changed surprisingly enough the local sports team lost a big game. So simply asking the question while people were excited about the game made them have a positive outlook. Asking them after the team lost, and they were crestfallen got a decidedly negative response. The real point of all this is that polls are incredibly fallible they can be undone by a sporting event.

I have heard these same polls, and in my opinion they only show that Republicans have done a good job in confusing the public. Confuse people enough, and they do not want anyone to do anything until they can figure it out, because on the flip side of these polls when people are asked questions like do you think the president is working hard, has your best interests in mind, and is a positive influence. Somehow Obama is still upwards of eighty percent. According to the very same polls. In other words these questions aren't linked. Now how the hell could that be.

Personally I heard the same health care crap from the right during the Clinton presidency. To be honest to my way of thinking they had their chance to prove it was right. Instead more people have lost their health care, and the rates continue to climb faster then inflation every single god damned year. I am supposed to fear beauracracy what like all the red tape I have to dance over when I deal with my insurance company. I am beyond being afraid of anything other then the government doing nothing.

Lastly it isn't health insurance it is health issuance. Insurance is what you have for the unseen eventuality. Issuance is what you need to obtain access. You have to have health insurance to obtain health care. The health care insurance industry through its practices drives up the price of care to those that are not insured. Effectively health care practitioners pass their losses to the uninsured. So there isn't even a capitalism debate here, because this industry functions as a protection racket.

Didn't he end at around ~35-40%. That's what I get from that graph.....

Here's a nice graph for those who think drastic changes aren't needed:

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/hea_hea_car_fun_tot_per_cap-care-funding-total-per-capita

Healthcare funding per capita:

USA: $4,600

UK: $1,700

Who says they don't need to change?

If we make it a government program, and it now cost the US $12,000 per person, is that change you want?

Health care in the UK is abysmal from what i've heard.

A lot of places in Europe with socialized medicine have it way worse than America, having to wait months and months for the simplest things.

God help us if Obama socializes health care.