President Obama's flailing approval ratings hurt his party

The Guardian reports:

President Obama's standing with the American people is flagging. The Real Clear Politics average at the time of this writing has his net approval rating at -7.3pt. But does Obama's approval rating matter now given that he never has to face re-election? And if it does matter, can he recover?

The answers are that it does matter – Obama's approval rating can greatly affect the 2014 midterm elections and, to a lesser extent, the 2016 presidential election – and the historical odds of it recovering much seem to be slim.