President Obama hit a new low in today’s Rasmussen poll. His total disapproval is at 57 percent, against 42 percent approval – a 15 point spread. We are a long way from the soaring vision he set forth in his Inaugural Address two-and-a-half years ago:

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord. On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.

It was an impressive list of things whose end was proclaimed by means of a speech: fear, conflict, discord, petty grievances, false promises, recriminations, worn-out dogmas – gone in one election and two sentences.

The operational significance of Obama’s words turned out to be hyper-partisan legislation (so much for unity of purpose), constant blaming of his predecessor (endless recriminations), massive spending on shovel-ready projects that did not exist (among other false promises), and a year-long effort to restructure one-seventh of the economy with Obamacare, while jobs disappeared. The discord was reflected in election results in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts, followed by a shellacking that did not end his proposals for trillion-dollar deficits, “clean” debt increases and more taxes.

The soaring rhetoric is long gone, replaced by eat your peas; turn in your homework; I can’t suck it up with a straw; and don’t blame me for the run of bad luck. Obama’s “presidential index” in the Rasmussen poll was at Plus 30 his first week in office, turned negative by July 2009, and today is at Minus 24. The chart (courtesy of Boker tov, Boulder) graphically demonstrating the poll results, is here. It is worth a thousand words.