How’s That Working Out for You?
by David Atkins (“thereisnospoon”)
First, Plouffe suggested, Obama has an opportunity to improve his standing among independent voters — many of whom deserted the Democrats in the 2010 midterm election — by working with Republicans toward bipartisan deficit-reduction measures.
Second, Obama has managed to move toward the center without losing significant support among core Democratic voters. The president’s job approval rating among Democrats, Plouffe said, is in the 80% to 90% range in many states. (Nationally, it’s about 77%, still respectable.)
In case you missed it, the latest from Pew:
The sizeable lead Barack Obama held over a generic Republican opponent in polls conducted earlier this year has vanished as his support among independent voters has fallen off.Currently, 41% of registered voters say they would like to see Barack Obama reelected, while 40% say they would prefer to see a Republican candidate win in 2012. In May, Obama held an 11-point lead.
This shift is driven by a steep drop-off in support for Obama among independents. The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted July 20-24 among 1,501 adults and 1,205 registered voters finds that just 31% of independent voters want to see Obama reelected, down from 42% in May and 40% in March. Where Obama held a slim 7-point edge among independent registered voters two months ago, a generic Republican holds an 8-point edge today.
This is consistent with a drop in Obama’s approval among all independents. Currently, a majority (54%) disapprove of Obama’s performance for the first time in his presidency.
But how could this be? After all, the public wants compromise, and the polls show the President is helping convince voters of the need for shared sacrifice and austerity.
It’s hard to understand how this could have happened. It’s almost as if spouting an endless stream of GOP talking points and bending over backward to compromise in the face of a fundamentalist cult in pursuit of a shifting “centrist” voter makes people less likely to vote for Democrats and less receptive to Democratic ideas. Doesn’t make sense to me. Which I guess is good, because it obviously doesn’t make sense to David Plouffe, either, or the White House strategy would be very different. For starters, they probably wouldn’t lose 37,000 twitter followers spamming their core supporters with messages about how important compromise is.
But no worries. I’m sure they’ve got it all under control.