Approval Rating and Partisan Politics

I saw an interesting article yesterday about the gap in approval rating of President Obama, between the Democrat and Republican parties. The gap between the two parties was 61 percent, which is one of the largest gaps of any new president over the past years. Although it is typical that a presidents rating would be significantly higher on the end of his own party, his is much higher than what is the norm. On the other end the Republican party has a significantly lower approval rating for President Obama, which is what makes the gap so large. Although as mentioned earlier this gap in presidential approval is normal, the question remains is this good for the country, especially is it good for a president campaigned about bi-partisan action in Washington?
For American citizens I feel it is necessary for there to be different parties, each with its own separate agenda. Although this divides the people, it also puts all citizens in a powerful position, because usually through a given party their individual feelings are covered to a point. An approval gap is going to happen, and to an extent it means the parties are doing their jobs. As far as for President Obama and this being a good or bad thing I really do not feel at this point it will directly affect him. When he took office there was so much distaste for the Republican party that the democrats can ride that for a good amount of time. President Obama has shut out the Republicans on occasion, which will help to contribute to this low rating from them. And as far as him promising bi-partisan action during his campaign I feel many people knew that statement was fluff, and would never actually take place. Those that truly believe that this was going to happen are naive and are still stuck back in Chicago after the President won the election, these are the people that need to get the stars out of their eyes and look at the facts.
The reason I chose to write about this is not only because I happened to stumble upon the article, but also because or blog is also supposed to talk about if we think the Republican party will someday not be able to compete on a national scale. Although I feel that this will not happen, I do feel it is realistic because of the way Republicans are not being listened to, and are being shut out from making important decisions.