OBAMA'S MALAISE AND THE END OF OBAMACARE

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck that isn't telling the American people the truth...  Yesterday it was the Washington Post-ABC News poll:

The flawed rollout of the Affordable Care Act has pushed President Obama to the lowest point of his presidency, with dwindling faith in his competence and in many of the personal attributes that have buoyed him in the past, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Opposition to the new health-care law also hit a record high in the survey, with 57 percent saying they oppose the president's most significant domestic initiative. Forty-six percent say they are strongly against it. Just a month ago, as the enrollment period was beginning, the public was almost evenly divided in its assessments of the law.

Disapproval of Obama's handling of the health-care law's rollout stands at 63 percent, with a majority saying they strongly disapprove. Last month, 53 percent disapproved.

The latest WaPo/ABC poll is TERRIBLE for Obama. And this was a poll of adults, which skew more Dem. pic.twitter.com/vqoM2jMI7M
— Ken Gardner (@kesgardner) November 20, 2013

Obviously the cynical non-apology "apology" offered last week to millions of Americans who discovered that Obama's "you can keep your plan" promise was a politically-motivated lie isn't doing anything to staunch the bleeding.  Quinnipiac had him at 39% last week, and both Pew and Reuters/Ipsos have also had Dear Leader's approval rating hovering around 40% in recent polling. His RCP average has descended to 40.4%, and there isn't much reason to believe that he'll bounce back soon. And now...this:

CBS poll: Obama approval sinks 9 points in a month to 37%

Obama can't even get to 40% with women, among whom his approval rating is 39/54. It's worse among independents, a disastrous 29/63. His overall approval (37/57) is nearly the same as George W. Bush at this point in his presidency (35/57), two months after Hurricane Katrina.

As with the WaPo/ABC poll, the ObamaCare fiasco has taken a toll on voter perceptions of Obama's personal qualities.  In September 2012, respondents considered Obama honest and trustworthy by a 60/35 margin.  Today it's 49/48, and among independents it's down to 43/53.

It's not just voters who don't care for Obama's performance, either. The Hill reports that his relationship with Capitol Hill Democrats has hit a new nadir, with most of them furious over his incompetence:

President Obama's relationship with congressional Democrats has worsened to an unprecedented low, Democratic aides say.

Sources who attended a meeting of House chiefs of staff on Monday say the room was seething with anger over the immense damage being done to the Democratic Party and talk was of scrapping rollout events for the Affordable Care Act.

"Here we are, we're supposed to be selling this to people, and it's all screwed up," one chief of staff ranted. "This either gets fixed or this could be the demise of the Democratic Party.

"It's probably the worst I've ever seen it," the aide said of the recent mood on Capitol Hill. "It's bad. It's really bad."

Yes, it is really bad.  Republicans have known it was bad from the beginning.  But it certainly does get ugly for Dems when their collective Kool-aid buzz wear off.  End of the Democrats?  I wish!  Like many harmful viruses, however, the Dems will mutate and continue to linger.  But we've certainly come a long way from the days of supreme arrogance when a top Democrat could laughingly say "We have to pass the bill to find out what's in it." 

@CoMoJoe pic.twitter.com/mMaNSpZ4jg
— Sean Agnew (@seanagnew) November 20, 2013