President Obama's approval ratings dropped to an all-time low, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. With exactly 14 months to go until the presidential election, only 44 percent of Americans approve of Obama's job performance. His rating first dipped below the 50 percent line in December 2009. Up until now, his numbers have fluctuated between 45 and 50 percent; in spite of the recent debt ceiling drama, S&P downgrade, recession, job crisis, two wars and killing bin Laden, his numbers have held fairly steady. Congress has it worse — only 13 percent approve of the job that Congress is doing. Bill McInturff, the Republican pollster who conducted this poll along with Democrat Peter Hart, credited this summer's debt ceiling saga as a pivotal moment in politics.
"We are entering a new phase of the American political dialogue that has been irrevocably shifted in a way that will prove difficult to predict. Historically, though, this type of deep voter anger, unease, and economic pessimism leads to unstable and unpredictable political outcomes."