The other major disappointment was Obama's over-the-top claim that he would be able to bring warring political factions together in Congress and usher in an era of bipartisanship -- something for which he was not known for doing during his brief Senate apprenticeship.

"The message was supposed to be consensus problem-solving, and I think voters see a reversion back to hyper-partisanship," Zogby said.

Can Obama get his numbers back? "Sure, but right now the economic-stimulus package looks as if it's spending and people haven't seen the results," he said.

Promises are one thing, but delivering on them is quite another. And as things stand now, Obama's presidency has had a rough takeoff, to say the least, including a sloppy vetting process in his Cabinet and sub-Cabinet nominees. Critical posts at Treasury and elsewhere remain unfilled in the midst of the worst recession in decades.

His cap-and-trade energy taxes are going nowhere in this Democratic Congress. Democratic budget chiefs have erased proposed revenues for his two signature policy proposals on energy and healthcare reform. The money to pay for his middle-class tax cuts after 2010 remains in doubt. And polls show growing doubts over the huge deficits his budget would heap on a cash-strapped economy.

This week's revealing Washington Post poll found "the nation's overall mood remains gloomy, and doubts are rising about some of the administration's prescriptions for the economic woes. Independents are less solidly behind Obama than they have been, fewer Americans now express confidence that his economic programs will work, barely half of the country approves of how the president is dealing with the federal budget deficit, and the political climate is once again highly polarized."

Meantime, the administration is attempting to tighten the regulatory reins over an economy that sees higher, punishing tax burdens in its future to pay for Obama's grandiose spending plans and a monster federal debt that will make President Bush's budgets tame by comparison.

Obama was swept into the presidency on a luxurious buffet of spending promises for virtually every political constituency in the country that flocked to his banner. Voters wanted to believe he could do these things without imposing any costs on them.

Now we know he wants to charge seniors more for their Medicare prescription-drug benefits, reduce tax deductibility rates on home mortgages and charitable contributions, and increase taxes on small businesses and on the capital gains investors earn on their retirement investments. And that's just for starters.

The downward slide in his polls is only just beginning.