So I'm watching Chris Matthews last night, and he prefaces a question to Tim Russert with something like, "Now, Tim, this is a popular president. . ."

Ruy Teixeira clears up that commonly held misconception here.

NOTE: The Matthews transcript doesn't appear to be available online yet. When it pops up, I'll add the link.

UPDATE: Ed Kilgore has more polling data, and it doesn't look like great news for the current crop of Southern GOP governors.

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