Since his inauguration -- actually, since well before his inauguration -- the punditry has been in awe of President Obama's continually high approval ratings.  As I've opined before, the fact that we have not seen a President in almost two decades whose ascension to power was not considered illegitimate by a substantial portion of the electorate probably plays a role here; Obama's approval ratings are not that stratospheric when one considers other Presidents who did not share the taint Bush II and Clinton suffered upon becoming President.

That said, there are some signs that Obama's approval ratings are beginning to come down to Earth.  This is unsurprising -- every post-World War II President who has served a full term, save Eisenhower, has seen his approval rating drop below 50% at some point in his first term.  Regardless, Rasmussen has Obama's net "strongly approve/strongly disapprove" ratings at zero for the first time in his term.  His net approval rating is tied for the lowest of his term.  At the same time, the percentage of people who classify Obama's leadership skills as "Excellent" or "Good" is only 51%.  49% give him "Fair" or "Poor" marks.

Gallup has also shown a narrowing of his approve/disapprove, which is the lowest today it has been in months (though it is still a very healthy net +31%).  The RCP average has him at his lowest net approval rating of his term (again, a healthy +25.2%); it also has him below 60% for only the second time (the first time was in March).

I've never really expected Obama's approval rating to collapse suddenly.  Even President Bush's approval rating declined only gradually over time.  Instead, what we will likely see with Obama is a Presidency that gets nibbled at bit by bit.  This week, more than a few people were likely alienated by the GM bailout.  Others probably took umbrage at his speech in Cairo, while others may dislike Sotomayor's "wise Latina woman" comments (although her approvals are still high, they are lower than Obama's, meaning there are some people who don't like her or are neutral about her who claim to like Obama).

Each little controversy takes a toll on Obama.  Given the challenges he has faced in his term, it is a little surprising he has held up as well as he has to date, though he also probably gets graded on something of a curve given the mess he inherited.

Time will tell whether this becomes a long term trend, or is merely a blip.  But for the first time since the stimulus debate, we're starting to get some signs that events are wearing away some of Obama's glow.