Later today, Air Force One will touch down in Tennessee's capital city. There, President Barack Obama will deliver a speech not unlike ones he has delivered in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, as the nation's chief executive continues a mini-tour to sell ideas he proffered in the State of the Union address.
Obama is expected to talk about income inequality and his goal to help the long-term unemployed find steady work.
Whether the Nashville audience will buy his message is hard to say. Obama comes to Tennessee the same week a Middle Tennessee State University poll shows his approval rating among state voters continues to fall.
Fifty-five percent of Tennesseans disapprove of the president's job performance, a number that is basically unchanged from the spring of 2013. But his approval rating has fallen, down to 30 percent.
"There is a clear trend in approval for President Obama going from bad to worse in Tennessee over time,” MTSU pollster Jason Reineke said in a statement. “In other words, while the number of Tennesseans who disapprove of the job Obama is doing has held fairly steady, approval has noticeably softened over the course of his presidency.”
Obama's most recent Tennessee trip came on July 30, 2013, when the president stopped in Chattanooga to talk about jobs and the economy. His visit included a stop at the state's Amazon fulfillment center.