Obama Approval Rating Down In Illinois

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Sep 4, 2009 2:00PM

Pete Souza/White House

Man, it's been a rough summer for President Obama. As if the economy hasn't given him enough problems, the battle over health care reform has turned pretty damn nasty. And now a new poll by the Tribune and WGN shows that support for Obama in his co-home state is waning a bit. Of the 700 registered voters polled, 59 percent approved of the job he was doing, 33 percent disapprove, and eight percent had no opinion. Of course, the real split comes on how Obama's handled health care.

Voters were almost equally split over his handling of health-care reform -- 42 percent approving and 43 percent against. While 58 percent approved of his overall handling of the economy, 49 percent said his economic policies had little if any effect on the job picture. Forty-five percent thought his policies had at least some impact.

Of course, as the Trib points out, even though election results don't necessarily always mirror approval ratings, the results of the poll are pretty darn close to the 2008 election results in Illinios (62-37 for Obama over McCain). So...it's nothing really, new, is it? People are pissed about health care and Obama still has pretty good approval numbers even if they're lower than the astronomical approval rating he had before.

Unfortunately for Obama, there's even more trouble brewing on the horizon: cries of "SOCIALIST!" are ringing in the hills again as the nation prepares for Obama's speech to schoolchildren this Tuesday. Save your breath, people. Obama's not "indoctrinating" your children and school districts - including Chicago - are allowed to opt out. And Presidents speaking to schoolchildren has been done before, after all. Apparently, we were the only kid in the school whose father pulled them aside one day and told us, "Never, ever trust the government" before he put a tinfoil hat on our head.