Check out this amazing Pollster.com graph of President Obama’s job approval rating from August 1st through November 30th:
During the period that covered the vast majority of 2010 electioneering--a time period featuring billions in paid media, not to mention an even greater amount of discourse spent analyzing, spinning, hyping, fainting, cheering, crying, arguing, and generally freaking out over the elections--President Obama’s approval rating never changed at all.
The cause of the stability in President Obama’s approval rating over the last four months could be the result of any number of factors. This graph does not show what any of those factors are. It only shows that his approval rating is remarkably stable of late.
Still, even if we don’t know the cause of the stability in President Obama’s approval rating, it is wroth noting. During the three months before August, and in fact for most of his presidency, Obama's approval rating had declined at a consistent, slow rate:
That trend has ended, replaced by a new stasis. How long this new trend will last--and what comes next--is anyone’s guess.