I think you are missing the point. I'll make it again, the opinion of the masses is not, by virtue of their being a mass, accurate. I take no issue with the origin of the poll but with your interpretation of it's meaning.
You are correct, and I understand that. What you must comprehend is that there is NO factual metric to which we can judge the President individually on...
The gallup poll, consisting of democrats, republicans, and others, is a good metric for determining how people "feel" about Obama.
Note how I used the term "approval rating", inherently implying that it is opinionated.
The point of my first post is that to get 23% of the nation, when he just won the popular vote, there must be individuals who once supported him, that no longer currently do. Ergo, the nation is beginning to realize that he has/is failing
Bringing facts into the matter, factually speaking, Obama has spent more money, accumulating more debt, than any other single president. We could go into more facts, such as his rampant and numerous lies, but even the illiterate know we don't have to go there