Presidential Approval Index

This article caught my eye today, explaining the latest daily tracking numbers on the mood of the country about their President.

Rasmussen does something called the "approval index," where they take the number of those who strongly favor the president and subtract the number who strongly disapprove.  Today the "index" stands at -10.  When he was inaugurated ten short months ago the index was +30. 

The reason the number fascinates me is that it confirms my suspicions cited in an earlier post that 40% of the American electorate -- the middle between the far left and the far right -- are always the "deciders" when it comes to political fates of elected officials, particularly the POTUS. 

Today's polling data suggest to me that Obama has lost the "middle" -- it's a 40-point swing from where he was on election day.  He's governing right now from the far left spectrum of policy making and it's making the middle America dwellers nervous.  It can almost certainly be traced to staggering deficit spending, almost limitless stimulus packages, and sweeping healthcare reform at a time when the Treasury's cupboards are bare.  In other words, it's still about the economy first and foremost, that's what's on most folks' minds.

News hit today that the world's gold supply has dwindled to nothing.  The price of an ounce of gold now stands at an all-time record high of $1,118 per OUNCE!!  Why?  This article spells it all out in detail.  The dollar has lost value at an alarming rate and nations around the globe have been opting out of the once-revered U.S. dollar in favor of gold for record chunks of their reserve currencies.  When demand rises and supplies shrink, prices have only one direction they can go -- up, up, up.

That's the bad news, but lest we despair, while the $1,118 is a record dollar high, gold reached $873 in 1980, which, inflation adjusted, is the real record of around $2,300.  So there, now doesn't that give you some degree of comfort?

The real Americans -- the ones in the middle -- have reversed course since Inauguration Day.  They swept him into office on the promise of "change," but now they're not so sure this is the kind of change they had in mind.