Obama falls below 50% in Gallup

One shouldn't read into it more than is there- it happened to Ronald Reagan a week earlier in his first term- but President Obama has, for the first time, fallen below 50% popularity in the Gallup tracking poll.

Reagan's approval remained south of that milestone for the next two years, and he was re-elected in one of the most one-sided landslides in history. But the fact remains that Barack Obama can no longer claim to have a majority of the country behind him and his program. And at a time when Democratic prospects for 2010 are already looking bleak, this can't be encouraging news to any of those who ride the donkey.

HT: Real Clear Politics