Don’t laugh this off as irrelevant. John McCain may have carried the Volunteer State in 2008, but last year Barack Obama had a 53-27 approval in the state. And this is the same state that produced Global Warming Alarmist-in-Chief Al Gore. Its current governor is Phil Bredesen, a Democrat. So the word “Democrat” isn’t exactly considered evil in Tennessee.

Yet here we are, with Obama’s approval rating under water. He holds a 42% approval rating, with 51% disapproving. And then there’s this:

Fifty-one percent of Tennesseans disapprove of Obama’s job performance in the latest poll, up from 46 percent in the fall and 27 percent in spring, according to Dr. Jason Reineke, associate director of the MTSU Poll and an assistant professor of journalism at MTSU.

“Significantly, dissatisfaction with Obama has spread from Republicans to include independents,” Reineke added. “Last fall, 43 percent of independents disapproved of Obama. Today, that figure has risen to 61 percent.”

The overall 51 percent disapproval represents a slim majority at best, considering the poll’s error margin of plus or minus four percentage points. Nonetheless, the poll‘s complementary ?ndings that 42 percent approve of Obama and 7 percent are undecided indicate beyond reasonable doubt that more Tennesseans disapprove of Obama than approve of him.

Look, it was unlikely that Tennessee would break for Obama in 2012 anyway. But the overwhelming disapproval by independents is relevant in two ways: 1) It’s part of a visible, national trend of independents breaking for Republicans; and 2) It doesn’t bode well for down-the-ticket Democrats in the Volunteer State.

Why the mass disapproval? It’s primarily a result of the continued recession despite massive spending projects Obama promised would keep unemployment below 8%. But liberal Democratic action on health care and the deficit aren’t helping, either. In fact, fewer Independents approve of Obama on health care than on the economy.

Campaigning is easy. Governing is hard.