◼ Hard truths: Obama's report card 1,724 days in - Andrew Malcolm/Investors Business Daily
...Last December Obama's approval rating among his political core of Democrats was 91%. Today, it is 78%, under 80% for the first time in nearly two years and just one point above his lowest approval ever. The 13-point drop among Democrats is greater even than the drop among U.S. adults overall.
Barely more than one-in-three business owners (37%) approve of Obama's job performance, despite his year-long delay in their having to implement ObamaCare. No profession surveyed delivered a majority of approving members. Business owners were the third lowest approving group, just above repairmen (35%), fisherman and farmers (34%) and just below construction workers (39%)....
Remember how in 2007-08 candidate Obama promised to be a political uniter who would end the harsh partisan divide in the nation's capital and get the federal government running efficiently? This month, for the first time since the 2008 election, jobs and the economy are no longer Americans' top concerns.
Today, the dysfunctional government is by far the top concern, listed by a whopping 33% of Americans. That's the highest percentage in three-quarters of a century, since before World War II. That eclipses the 19% who list the economy as the top national concern and the deficit, unemployment and healthcare, all at 12%. If that concern persists, voter unhappiness with incumbents could play a major role in the 2014 midterms, just 13 months away.
Two-out-of-three Americans see through Obama's hollow boasts of boosting domestic energy production to record levels. Fully 65% of likely voters do not believe the nation is doing enough to develop its own energy resources. And 57% of the same group favor building the Keystone XL pipeline to bring oil from Canada to Texas....
