Obama Faring Better Among Dem Voters Than Every Democratic President Since Truman: Gallup

It's one thing to be willing to go vote for a candidate on Election Day (or, more accurately­, against the other candidate)­; it's another entirely to be willing to donate scarce money, canvass and evangelize­, and infuse the campaign with passion and energy.  That many liberals will still be willing to do the former notwithsta­nding their dissatisfa­ction does not mean they will do the latter.  That level of progressiv­e commitment to Obama's candidacy was vital to his victory in 2008, and its absence could be crippling in 2012 (a dependency on Wall Street cash even greater than 2008 can only take one so far).  Wasn't that one obvious lesson of 2010: the central role base enthusiasm plays in election outcomes? 

Democratic Party supporters can try to put a happy face on this problem by citing approval ratings, but it only masks the serious problem of intense dissatisfa­ction and lack of enthusiasm (Matt Yglesias and others, for instance, touted a poll from Netroots Nation finding 80% approval for Obama as evidence that the base loves the President, studiously ignoring the much more significan­t fact that only 27% "strongly approved" of Obama in that poll, while 53% approved only "somewhat,­" and 20% expressed some form of disapprova­l [strong or somewhat]:  a poll of hard-core Democratic activists that finds that only 27% "strongly approve" of their own Party's president is hardly some sign of a healthy relationsh­ip with the base: quite the opposite).

Read the Article at HuffingtonPost