After the passage of ObamaCare, the president was going to go coast to coast to sell it. Then he was going to pivot (really) to jobs. Instead, he’s decided to emphasize his commander-in-chief role by going to a START-signing ceremony and then hosting a nuclear nonproliferation summit. But perhaps this isn’t the way to get back into the public’s good graces. It seems they overwhelmingly disapprove of some of his central premises:

Fifty-five percent (55%) of U.S. voters oppose President Obama’s new policy prohibiting the use of nuclear weapons in response to chemical or biological attacks on the United States.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 25% of voters agree with the president’s decision to rule out a nuclear response if a non-nuclear country attacks America with chemical or biological weapons. Another 20% are undecided.

Only 31% favor a reduction in the number of nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal. Fifty-three percent (53%) oppose any such reduction. Sixteen percent (16%) are not sure. …

Only 38% think it is even somewhat likely that other countries will reduce their nuclear weapons arsenals and development in response to the actions taken by the United States. That includes just seven percent (7%) who say it’s very likely.

Fifty-four percent (54%) think reciprocal disarmament by other countries is unlikely, with 35% who say it’s not very likely and 19% who view it as not at all likely.

No wonder Obama seems grumpy so much of the time. First, the rubes don’t believe the stimulus worked. Then they don’t appreciate his “historic” health-care legislation. And now they think his nonproliferation plans are a bunch of hooey. It’s almost like there is a vast Center-Right coalition out there antagonistic toward big government, focused on economic recovery, dubious about unilateral gestures that smack of appeasement, supportive of military action to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, and convinced that the way to win the war against Islamic fascists is not to close Guantanamo, give KSM a public trial and Mirandize terrorist bombers but rather to defeat the enemy by all reasonable means available.

Yes, those views are held by a majority of Americans (a large majority in some cases). That puts Obama at odds with the electorate and makes him hard pressed to come up with some policy initiative that’s going to be popular. So long as he’s pursuing ultra-liberal domestic and national security policies, he’s going to find the rubes awfully hard to please.