Not that it matters a whole lot for him to be tanking in an odd-numbered year; he was in the tank in 2009 and 2011 as well (and in 2010, which actually was helpful)…

A new poll from CNN finds President Obama’s approval dropping 8 points since May. Today, just 45% of Americans approve of his handling of the Presidency. 54% disapprove. Last month, 53% of adults approved of his performance. The dramatic drop is a clear sign that the scandals engulfing the Administration are taking a serious toll, just as his second term begins.

The problem is that the president’s approval ratings taking a dump is meaningless politically. He’s already been re-elected. If the public hates him now it makes no difference to anything.

If Obama’s approval numbers stay far below 50 percent he’ll get butchered in next year’s mid-term elections and the GOP will have the opportunity to take the Senate back.

Which will also be meaningless. Generally speaking Obama can’t get any legislation passed in the House as it is, and there is no real danger of the Democrats retaking the House next year.

So getting control of the Senate is nice, and it would make this president more of a lame duck than he is right now – except for the burgeoning welfare state he’s building through executive order.

And there is a gigantic segment of the population who doesn’t care about politics, is convinced all politicians are scum and holds the political class and the president to a tremendously low standard. And since Obama is cool and the Republicans are not, they’ll give him the benefit of the doubt no matter what he does – sell out our people in Benghazi, persecute his political enemies, spy on Americans without probable cause or steal money out of the treasury for $100 million junkets to Africa, whatever. A solid third of the population just doesn’t care; he’s the First Black President, and they refuse to recognize that he sucks at his job.

Another 10-15 percent of the population is hard-core leftist, sees him as the Messiah for their utopian designs for this country and will support him to the end.

With that, you’re going to have some 45-48 percent of his support which will not desert him until the end of the world comes.

And naturally the media will prop him up as much as they can. Watch how much effort they’ll put into smothering all these scandals. Of course, if more keep coming, which is entirely possible, you’ll see the narrative develop about how America is ungovernable – because Bush had the same problems. They won’t come to the obvious conclusion that these problems come because too much power is centered in Washington, mind you, but they’ll push the narrative that this isn’t Obama’s failing but rather just the way things are.

All the same, it’s nice to see some consequences, however meager, to the poor performance of this president.