Today, the Rasmussen Reports published in their Daily Presidential Tracking Poll that President Obama's approval ratings have dipped down to 49%, with only 29% of Americans polled expressing strong approval. Over the past week, media coverage of the President has been 52% positive, down from 60% immediately after healthcare reform passed, but up from 47% the week before last.
Now the big question is- will President Obama's approval ratings rise again? I believe that they will, for several reasons. First of all, media coverage of President Obama is coming back up from a low a couple weeks ago. While this may be a short term trend, I think that as the controversy surrounding the passage of health-care reform becomes old news, people will return to a less polarized view of Obama. This has held true in the past- important events affect approval ratings for a while, but things end up stabilizing as other issues come into play and the old issues fade into the past.
After Clinton attempted to pass his version of health care reform (which was much more controversial and extensive) back in the 90's, his approval ratings suffered, but eventually came back up. Now Clinton is generally remembered in a positive light.
Also, I believe that people will start to see positive changes take place in the system. As I've said before, I personally do not favor socialized medicine or a government option, but the version of healthcare reform that passed seems like common sense to me. I think that as time goes on, more and more Americans will realize that Obama's healthcare reform has nothing to do with socialism, and everything to do with an honest attempt at improving healthcare in America.
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