this morning. secretary gates says only someone. judge ruled that the policy must end immediately but an appeals court temporarily suspended that ruling. now to politics this morning and the countdown of course to the big midterm elections. president obama is container in chief right now. a new gallup poll shows the president s approval rating has fallen to a new low. 44% think he s doing a good job. but he have enough weight to sway the election. john hendren joins its with the latest. reporter: good morning rob and vinita. the president is hoping to do it one state at a time. stopping in san francisco bay area and seattle where he was greeted like 2008. in seattle, there s little evidence of an enthusiasm gap. president of the united states, president barack obama. i love you back! reporter: but outside of
we re down to just two weeks before the big midterm elections. paul steinhauser following the latest news from the trail. i got brand new stuff for you hot off the presses. cnn poll of polls, the generic battle, the battle for congress. we have been updating it and getting the most recent poll numbers from national surveys. 48% of people said they would vote for the generic republican candidate in their district, and 41% saying they would back the generic democrat. this is the standard question, scrn krn asked it, that seven-point advantage up for the republicans is up one point from last friday. let s talk about former president bill clinton, also brand new on the cnn political ticker. he is kicking off three days of campaigning. he is the go-to guy for democrats. but is he more effective than
medical decisions and financial decisions as well. an important moment. we have a minute left. an important question, ed, is the economy getting better? reporter: it s funny, you talk to senior people here, and they feel that it is. not just what the president is saying publicly, but what they say in private, is that for the first time in a long time they really feel inside this white house that it is turning the corner. we ve seen some somewhat positive jobs numbers as you know in recent weeks. they know that there s a long way to come, and i think politically, obviously, everyone here at the white house is wondering how quickly it s going to turn around in terms of whether it you know, people start feeling it before november, when we have those big midterm elections. but, you know, last year at this time, a lot of people were talking about the w as whether there would be sort of a double-dip recession. yeah. reporter: people here at the white house think there s not reall
what is your sense of how this movement takes the next step? it is clearly a high profile protest movement, gathered a lot of attention, a lot of steam and raised some issues. how does it become a political force in a big midterm election year? i think it already is. and my way of explanation, everybody who holds office today and seeks office is asking themselves the question, and oftentimes calling and asking me, how am i going to stand with respect to the to the tea party access, because that s been the generic term. i had a guy in south carolina give me a call and say, dick, can you call off the dogs? i said, you need to understand, i don t own the dogs. a lot of people now say you have a whole bunch of state tea parties, organizations affiliated with the tea parties
henry with the political fallout of justice kennedy s retirement announcement. how nasty is this battle shaping up to be on the hill? a big midterm election, already the biggest of our lifetime and got more consequential. of wave, nancy pelosi wants to raise your taxes, blunt economic momentum, the fed said we are headed for 4.5% growth. it is bigger, if democrats take the house maxine waters will try to impeach the president, that is even bigger, now locking down the supreme court into a conservative court maybe for the next generation, the top advisers who want is nominee conformed before november. this it is doable to name the pick in two or three weeks in hearings and votes by october but democrats are going to try everything to try to block this nominee regardless of what is. listen to chuck schumer and mitch mcconnell going at it. republican colleagues in the senate should follow the rule they set in 2016 not to consider supreme court justice in an