A new Quinnipiac University poll shows that President Obama's approval rating among Americans has fallen seven points in the last month, from 57 percent to 50 percent, with just 45 percent of independent voters approving of the job he's doing.

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Worse news comes for the president on the specifics of his agenda. Just 39 percent approve of the way Obama is handling health care; 45 percent approve of how he is handling the economy; 64 percent say they are somewhat or very dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country today; and an astonishing 93 percent say the economy is poor or not so good.

But before Republicans in Congress pop the champagne, they should note that the poll shows that the president is still the most popular person in Washington. Congressional Republicans have a significantly worse approval rating -- 29 percent -- and more Americans still trust Obama to do a better job than the GOP in handling the economy and health care.

So why do the president's approval numbers matter when the 2012 elections are so far off?

Because the president's next test is actually in 2010, when the mid-term elections will serve as a referendum on his first two years. Moderate Democrats will not go along with Obama's policies if he is unpopular with the independent voters in their districts.

And finally, of special interest to Politics Daily readers, 62 percent of people polled by Quinnipiac said that the president should not have waded into the Professor Gates/Cambridge police matter, and that he definitely should not have answered a question about it from our intrepid Lynn Sweet. You know a reporter is cooking with gas when her query is the topic of a national poll question. Welcome to our kitchen, PD readers.


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