Harris Poll: More Bad News for Obama

And the hits just on keep on coming. I'm surprised the far left hasn't started calling people who answer opinion polls the wrong way "racists" or maybe that's coming next as the Obama administration continues to stumble.

The latest Harris Poll numbers are nothing but bad news for the White House.

For the first time in his presidency, Barack Obama's negative rating exceeds his positive score, according to a poll conducted between Sept. 8-15. Those who think the country is on the wrong track have risen while those who think it is moving in the right direction have fallen, according to Harris Interactive.

Some of the key results of this Harris Poll include:

-- President Obama's rating is now 49% positive, 51% negative, compared to 51% positive and 49% negative in August. While the month-on-month change is not statistically significant, the latest numbers are significantly worse than his ratings in all the other Harris Polls conducted since his inauguration. In May his ratings were 59% positive, 41% negative.

-- While Democrats still have overwhelmingly positive views of the president, and Republicans are overwhelmingly negative, a majority of Independents (by 54% to 46%) now give the president negative ratings. And 21% of Democrats give him negative marks.

-- The 58% to 42% majority which now thinks that the country is on the wrong track is more negative than the 54% to 46% majority who believed this in August. However, the new numbers on this question are virtually the same as they were in June and July.

-- When asked to name the two most important issues for the government to address, fully 55% now mention health care, which is well ahead of the economy (36%). In May when this question was last asked, the economy (45%) topped the list well ahead of health care (31%).

-- It is interesting to note the decline in those mentioning the economy from 64% last October to 59% in January, 50% in March and only 36% now. It seems that many people are not as frightened by the economic crisis now as they were 11 months ago and earlier this year.

How do Obama's ratings compare with previous presidents' ratings after eight months in office? Not so hot.

The Harris Poll, which has has been rating presidents regularly since Lyndon Johnson was in the White House, found that Obama's positive rating of 49% is slightly lower than those of most of his predecessors at this time in their presidencies.

With the exception of President Johnson, who enjoyed a positive rating of 67% in September 1965, all the other presidents had positive ratings approximately eight months after they were inaugurated of between 48% (President Clinton in 1993) and 56% (George H.W. Bush in 1989), according to Harris.

The lower a president's job rating, the more the opposition and the media tend to attack and criticize him, and it becomes harder for the president to rally his supporters or to twist arms in Congress, according to Harris. If Obama's ratings continue to slip, it will be harder for him to pass hotly contested legislation, and in particular, health care reform, concludes Harris.