Good News for Obama, Who Continues to Sink in the Polls

The death of Imam Anwar al-Awlaki, publicly celebrated by Barack Obama, was good news at a bad time for the U.S. president, who a new poll placed as practically tied with two of his most popular potential rivals in the November 2012 elections, Mitt Romney and Chris Christie.

Obama took advantage of his participation at the inaugural ceremony of the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, to congratulate the security services on a “major blow” to al-Qaida and then acted coy when questioned if the order to kill the head of the organization in the Arabian Peninsula came from his desk. When asked the question by a reporter, the president apologized by saying “I can’t talk about the operational details.”

But in the U.S. media, it was impossible to put aside the memory of last May, when Obama was able to find respite from his falling popularity and announce the death of Osama bin Laden to the country on television.

The president undoubtedly is going to need to strengthen his “tough” image in the fight against Islamic fundamentalist organizations, which is one of the few, if not the only, categories in which his fellow citizens still approve of his work. He has a 53 percent approval rating for his fight against terrorism.

With an unemployment rate at 9.1 percent, Obama appears to be sliding into dangerous territory approaching the 2012 elections. A Rasmussen poll showed the president to be in a tight squeeze if the elections were held today and the candidate was Christie, the governor of New Jersey, or Romney, the well-dressed Mormon, former Massachusetts governor and Wall Street favorite. According to the poll, today Obama trails Romney at 42 percent to 44 percent and beats Christie, who has still not decided if he will run for the Republican nomination, by a nose at 44 percent to 42 percent.