BOUNCE FADING? - AT 9:35 A.M. ET:  Too early to tell, but this morning's Rasmussen survey shows the president losing ground, and important ground in his overall approval rating.  This follows the bounce he received following his speech to Congress last week. 

We stress that a poll is a snapshot in time, and trends must be examined over a number of days.  However, Rasmussen has been pretty accurate this year in predicting what other polls would eventually show.

This morning Ras reports the president's approval and disapproval ratings as even, at 50%-50%.  Yesterday the president led, 52% to 48%.

The presidential approval index, measuring the gap between those who strongly approve and those who strongly disapprove, stands at minus four, 34% to 38%.  It was minus three yesterday.

We'll follow this to see where the trend goes in the next week. 

September 15, 2009