Now, Jimmy Higdon’s special election victory is the 33rd win for Republicans in state legislative special elections across the country since November 2008, out of about 50.  So three-to-one Democrat advantage in this particular district, and a Republican won it.  I tell you, the Wall Street Journal has a story on this today, detailing it a little bit more than I have for you here.  But this is happening all over the country.  There’s genuine disgust and disapproval for the Democrat Party right now from Obama on down.  Now, the Democrats still love Obama, don’t misunderstand.  He’s still a huge hero to the Democrats, but when it comes to independents and even some of the Republicans who voted for him, he’s lost ’em and continues to lose ’em in droves.  And from Public Policy Polling:  For the second month in a row now, we find Barack Obama’s national approval rating at 49%, 47% disapprove.  So you got four polls now of Obama below 50% approval.  You got Marist, Quinnipiac, Gallup, and now Public Policy Polling.

Support for Obama on health care has hit another new low.  Just 39% of voters are now expressing approval of Obama’s health care plans, 52% oppose.  And Public Policy Polling — I’m sure they won’t mind me mentioning this because we deal with the truth here — they’re a bunch of liberals, a bunch of liberal Democrats.  This is the group I’ve told you about before.  This is the group that said that many Democrats across the country are begging, “Don’t show the results of the polling you got going on in our states.  Doesn’t look good, don’t publish them.”  Ninety percent of respondents who said they were opposed to Obama’s plan said it was because it involved the government too much in health care.  Just 6% said their opposition was because it didn’t create enough government involvement.

“Given the horrendous approval ratings Bush showed during his final term that’s somewhat of a surprise and an indication that voters are increasingly placing the blame on Obama for the country’s difficulties instead of giving him space because of the tough situation he inherited.” I’ll tell you something else that’s not helping him.  Every time he goes out there and whines and moans about what his predecessor did and how flawed it was and how hard it was, how bad it was, it was worse than we ever knew when we got here, that doesn’t sit well with people.  “The closeness in the Obama/Bush numbers also has implications for the 2010 elections. Using the Bush card may not be particularly effective for Democrats anymore, which is good news generally for Republicans and especially ones like Rob Portman who are running for office and have close ties to the former President,” Portman in Ohio.  “Finally 20% of voters, including 35% of Republicans, support impeaching Obama for his actions so far.”  One-fifth of voters after just a year.  Public Policy Polling validates the Gallup poll on presidential approval.

And then there’s this.  Before we go to the break here, this is getting hilariously tiresome.  From the perpetually blindsided Associated Press: “‘New Jobless Claims Rise More Than Expected to 474,000 — The tally of newly laid off workers seeking jobless benefits rose more than expected after falling for five straight weeks.  The Labor Department says initial claims for unemployment insurance rose by 17,000 to a seasonally adjusted 474,000.  That was above analysts’ expectations.”  Do you realize that every time one of these reports comes out the AP experts are always shocked, it doesn’t matter what happened.  More or less than expected, they’re always shocked.  The AP is perpetually blindsided by this data.  “The Labor Department analyst says claims were partly inflated by a surge following the Thanksgiving holiday week when many state unemployment offices were closed.”  Why should this have been unexpected?  The article itself says right here, Labor Department says claims were partly inflated by a surge following the Thanksgiving holiday. That’s why last week the numbers were down.  There weren’t as many days to go file claims, Thanksgiving week.  Two days out of the five days they were closed.  This week they were open so it’s a surge.

Why would anybody who can think with any logical progression at all be shocked at this?  Even though the Thanksgiving holiday closings weren’t noted when the AP gave its glowing jobs report last week, some of us noted it would cause the next week’s numbers to go up.  We are never surprised here at the EIB Network.  But, anyway, when you boil it all down, who cares.  Unemployment numbers are like Obama’s Gallup numbers written with a crayon by a six-year-old, as Robert Gibbs said, and they’re just as meaningless because the recession is over, happy days are here again.  That’s in the Universe of Lies.  That’s the spin.