[yasmin]

http://blogs.wsj.com/capitaljournal/...-desert-obama/

A Year After Honeymoon Ends, Whites, Men and Independents Desert Obama

By Peter Brown

Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, is a former White House correspondent with two decades of experience covering Washington government and politics.

It was a year ago this month that President Barack Obama began losing voters. In the 12 months since, he has had legislative victories that appear – especially in the case of health care – to have cost him large amounts of both political capital and political support.

A comparison of the public’s views of him then and now tells us a great deal about the shape of American politics and how difficult it is for any president, even one as politically gifted as Barack Obama, to surmount the nation’s deep political and ideological divisions.

Mr. Obama won a surprisingly easy victory in 2008, carrying 53% of the popular vote and 365 electoral votes – along with Bill Clinton in 1996, the biggest Democratic presidential win since Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 landslide.

Candidate Obama promised “change we can believe in,” a post-partisan, problem-solving presidency that would heal the nation’s yawning political divide. By the time he was inaugurated in January 2009, Mr. Obama had stratospheric public approval ratings, heightened by many who had voted against him but decided to give him a chance despite their misgivings.

[leijggigf]

This stuff cracks me up. Pres. Obama is "losing voters." There is NO election. How can he "lose voters" when there is no election for voters to cast votes for? The only time losing voters will count is Nov. 2012.

[JakilSong]

Yeah, Bush was down in his off years, at least until he let us get our collective nose bloodied. Let's talk when we're in compaining mode, and when Obama can actually point to what he's already done when it matters instead of right now when it's water under the bridge.

Numbers always fall after a president is sworn in. It's natural.

btw, I'm still white and male and staying with Obama.