By: Jeffrey Klein
Political Buzz Examiner

Last night was the highly anticipated kick-off the Democrat National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, to a fairly rowdy crowd in person, but desperately wanting for network TV viewers, with NBC, ABC and CBS audiences plummeting by 36 to 45 percent compared to last year, according to viewer stats read by Rush Limbaugh during his radio program today.

This echoes the dwindling crowds of college students attending President Barack Obama’s ceaseless parade of battle ground state pep rallies–maybe it’s because their graduating brethren have been suffering from a 53 percent unemployment rate since he took office.

As a result, Democrats have been fretting for months over whether the President Obama can draw a capacity crowd to the 74,000 seat Bank of America Stadium–10,000 less than the Denver stadium he packed in 2008. However, just yesterday, the campaign bragged about giving away thousands of free tickets to local event volunteers and bringing busloads of people to the event–mostly students and black church congregations from surrounding states–according to an Associated Press article yesterday.

But, the viewership numbers this morning no doubt caused them to conveniently ‘blame’ potential bad weather Thursday (even though a local meteorologist forecasts said it would be just fine), for having to ‘shrink’ Barack Obama’s acceptance speech into the 20,000 seat Time Warner Cable Arena–the main convention site, according to a FOXNews article today.

It is quite easy to understand how the black [church] community has lost their enthusiasm for the president’s bluster, after their hope for a job has been dashed by a 16+ percent unemployment rate, and voting for Barack Obama would compromise their Christian faith and salvation, because the president supports same-sex marriage, while God condemns homosexuality.

If that weren’t enough, a majority of Americans feel the same way.

The Hill released its’ pesky poll of 1,000 ‘Likely Voters,’ whose division according to party affiliation reflects the country right now, 36 percent Republican, 34 percent Democrat and 30 percent Independent.

No poll ‘manufacturing’ here.

Unfortunately for president Obama, 52 percent of respondents declared that the nation [they] were “Worse off,” than in September 2008, regardless of what DNC talking heads say.

More importantly, even more, 54 percent, do not believe Barack Obama ‘deserves’ to be reelected–with only 40 percent believing that he does, according to Sheldon Alberts article in The Hill today.

However, the news gets much worse for the president, because the voting categories which were key to his election in 2008 have dramatically switched sides.

First are the all important ‘Independents,’ who have no major party affiliation, 61 percent of whom turned thumbs down to another Obama term.

Then, 51 percent of those aged 18-39 also want he to decamp–while just 40 percent would give him another chance.

Finally, anti-Obama sentiment is strongest among our seniors (those aged 65 and over) who are also the most reliable visitors to the voting booth, and 65 percent of them want to show Barack Obama the door–with 53 percent of voters aged 40 to 64 concurring.

So, do you suppose there is any truth to the rumor that Barack and Michelle have already picked out a home in the sunny Aloha state?