Public Opinion: Bottom Falling Out For Democrats

It would be impossible to overstate how bad the recent round of published polls are for the Democratic Party with seven months to go before the mid-term election. Here are a few examples:

— Senator Boxer’s job approval is 40% in California. Her leading general election opponent, former Rep. Tom Campbell, has produced two polls ahead of her.

— Former Representative Toomey’s steady lead over Pennsylvania Senator Specter is expanding.

— Republicans are ahead in gubernatorial races in California, Connecticut, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin.

— President Obama’s job approval has fallen to 50 in his home state, 42 in Colorado, and 45 in Pennsylvania. There are indications he may be about to fall below his national floor of 47. If the president’s national job approval falls several more points that probably guarantees control of the House of Representatives will return to the Republicans.

— Senate Majority Leader Reid is spending a million dollars a month and cannot budge his depressed ratings in Nevada.

— All Republican-held U.S. Senate seats currently look safe, according to published polls.

— Former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson is so far ahead of Senator Russ Feingold he may jump into that Senate race.

— The GOP is ahead in seven U.S. Senate races for Democratic seats, according to Real Clear Politicsaverages, and the Democratic seats in California and Illinois are now in play. If things keep deteriorating the former Senate seats of Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden, and Barack Obama will all be captured by Republicans.

The best you can say for the Democrats is perhaps the GOP has peaked too soon. But the clear pattern in the polls has been a steady downward trend for the Democrats since 3 weeks after President Obama’s inauguration.