Gallup’s poll analysis pronounces that “Americans’ views are holding steady” on the president’s budget. But that’s not really right. At the end of February, 44% of those polled were positive. Now only 39% are. Those who are negative went up from 26 to 27%. Whoa. The greatest communicator of our age, with 10,000 canvassers at his disposal and a largely sympathetic media — plus an opposing party supposedly in disarray — and less people like his budget than they did a month ago?

Perhaps they now have a general sense that the budget is actually just a huge increase in government spending with corresponding hikes in taxes and a vast expansion of our debt. Maybe the president is madly selling in primetime and sending his minions out to door knock because the White House has discovered the same phenomenon: the more people — and that includes congressmen in his own party — learn, the less they like it.

Conversely, the White House strategy of simply insisting everyone else wants to stand “pat” or Republicans are the “no” party may have missed the boat. He hasn’t really made the case why all that spending is a good thing and, more important, how vastly expanding the percentage of GDP taken up by the public sector will help our  economic recovery. The president has been everywhere for weeks — but apparently he hasn’t been making the sale.