By Nile Gardiner World Last updated: September 26th, 2010

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Members of the Tea Party rally in Washington (Photo: Getty)

Who would have predicted this a year ago? Certainly not the complacent army of White House spin doctors who have failed to grasp, let alone acknowledge, the momentous political transformation that is sweeping America. CNN's latest poll confirms that the Tea Party movement has more political clout than the President of the United States in influencing voters during this November's mid-terms. While just 37 percent of Americans are more likely to vote for a candidate if backed by Barack Obama, a far larger 50 percent will vote for a Tea-Party endorsed candidate.

As CNN puts it:

A solid majority of all Americans — 56 percent — say that Obama has fallen short of their expectations. As a result, the president is not in a position to help struggling Democratic candidates; only 37 percent of likely voters say they are more likely to vote for a congressional candidate backed by Obama.

In contrast, half of all likely voters now say they are likely to choose a candidate supported by the conservative Tea Party — contributing to the GOP's 53 to 44 percent lead when such voters are asked which party's candidate they will choose in November.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll also gives President Obama his lowest approval rating so far – just 42 percent, which will be deeply worrying to the White House. This is nearly three percentage points below the RealClearPolitics average of polls which currently gives the president a 44.9 percent approval rating, and three points lower thanthe latest Rasmussen Daily Presidential Tracking Poll, which has Obama at 45 percent.

Significantly, the CNN poll comes after several days of intense attacks by the Left on the Tea Party in the wake of its surge in the recent political primaries, and reports of a planned campaign by the White Houseagainst the movement. As the assault on the Tea Party intensifies in October, support for it will probably rise even further, with President Obama's own lacklustre popularity taking a deeper hit.

The reason for the Tea Party's stunning success and President Obama's equally remarkable decline is relatively simple. A truly popular grassroots movement has captured the fears and concerns of tens of millions of Americans over the relentless rise of Big Government and the growing threat to economic and individual freedom under the Obama administration, while channeling their hopes and aspirations for the future based upon a return to the founding ideals of the Constitution.

In contrast, an out of touch presidency that exudes arrogance and elitism at every turn continues to contemptuously spend other people's money with abandon, building up a crippling debt that will ultimately destroy America's long-term prosperity if left unchecked. It is a stark choice that the two sides offer, and it's not surprising that a clear majority of Americans are opting for political revolution rather than the status quo.

Tags: Barack Obama, budget deficit, CNN poll, November mid-terms,rasmussen, RealClearPolitics, tea party