Day193 Thursday 03/10/11

ran 3.2 miles

Some polls from Rasmussen Reports:

• Barack Obama’s presidential index rating shows that 23% of American voters strongly approve of his performance while 39% strongly disapprove, giving Obama a presidential index rating of –16.

• Overall, 47% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of Barack Obama’s performance and 52% disapprove.

• The Rasmussen Consumer Index shows consumer confidence has fallen to the lowest levels of 2011. Only 33% of American adults rate their own personal finances as good or excellent. That’s down from 43% the night before Lehman Brothers collapsed in September 2008. It’s also down from 38% on the night President Obama was elected and 35% the day he was inaugurated.

• Among American voters, 27% believe the United States is heading in the right direction.

• Among Wisconsin voters, 48% think that increases in public employee pension benefits should require voter approval before implementation.

• Among likely Wisconsin voters, 34% strongly approve of the job Governor Scott Walker is doing and 48% strongly disapprove.

Speaking of Wisconsin, unrest has lost no momentum in the streets and inside the capitol, where hordes of protestors refuse to accept their state government’s decision to curb collective bargaining. Reverend Jesse Jackson has weighed in on the opportunity to stir the pot saying, “So they’re going to escalate the protests---you will either have collective bargaining through a vehicle called collective bargaining or you’re going to have it through the streets. People here will fight back because they think their cause is moral and they have nowhere else to go.”

1,530.4 miles to go.