This is NOT good. These reports from Rasmussen (from yesterday on the left, today on the right) cannot be sending message a “thrill of victory” up Chris Matthew’s leg either.
That is a big drop from one day to another, but even if this is still way early in the campaign, there is no way (conventional wisdom) that a sitting President should be faring this badly.
Rassmussen’s polling is different than a lot of others in that they are IVR conducted (“please press 1”) with not registered voters but with likely voters. While no pollster can be sure that someone that self-identifies as a likely voter actually does, it does seem to indicate a better estimate of what is actually going to happen vs just someone who is registered (after all, our voter participation rates, as best, go 60% and often are way below that). (H/T: Rasmussen yesterday, today)
