Obama Barely Above Water ... in Illinois

Time to reinvigorate the base by announcing a full withdrawal from Iraq. Anything to distract attention from assorted scandals. Heck, start writing checks to people to keep them on board.

With approval ratings like this in his own state, who knows what he'll do next?

If the 2012 presidential election were held today, President Barack Obama would win his home state of Illinois against any one of four top GOP contenders, but the margins at this stage look close, according to the results of the 2011 statewide Simon Poll.

The survey, conducted by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, also shows weak job-approval ratings for Obama, and worse ratings for Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn.

Among respondents to the survey who said they would vote in the March 2012 Republican primary, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and retired Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain were the top two vote-getters.

He's at 46% in matchups against either Cain or Romney, which would place him in danger of losing Illinois next year. Just think about that for a minute.

“You could look at this as being uncomfortably close for the president in his home state,” said Simon Institute Director David Yepsen. “On the other hand you could say Obama is holding up fairly well in Illinois, given the difficult year he has had politically and the continued poor performance of the economy."
...
Barely half (51.8%) of voters surveyed approve of the job their fellow Illinoisan is doing as president, though this is ten points higher than his national approval rating as measured by the latest Gallup Poll. Obama’s 2011 rating in Illinois is essentially identical to the 51.2% approval rating he received in the fall 2010 Simon Poll.

That 0.6% increase will probably be reported as his approval going up. His disapproval is 46.4%, a number that must terrify his campaign flunkies.