[Oops; I just posted this comment on the other Rasmussen thread, when I had intended to post it here. Oh well.]
I came late to the thread and haven’t read every post so this may echo someone else’s thought. But here is something I’ve been thinking a lot about, and which may shed light on why Obama’s numbers aren’t falling even faster. There are some Americans, and I wouldn’t put the number at an insignificant level, who fear that to ‘disapprove’ of Obama would be perceived as racist.
Iow, if a pollster asks if they approve or disapprove, they may hate the job he’s doing, but say they approve in order to avoid being seen as bigots. I believe this factor is real, and is keeping his numbers at least to some degree artificially inflated. Fwiw.
There may be some truth in that. I think until people feel it is accepted to openly disapprove, they may be inflating his numbers. Much of this will also be based on your community. I told my wife there is no way we are going to put a negative Obama sticker on our car, because where we live, our car would be set on fire if we ever left it unattended.
I wouldn’t fall into that trap. Last year that was the big theory floating around saying Obama would do somewhat worse than the polling - NOT true sadly.