Greg Sargent takes a look at the internals of the new ABC News/Washington Post poll and finds the same thing this week's Daily Kos poll showed: dropping approval for the White House from the Democratic Party base.
A major factor in President Obama’s slide in today’s big Washington Post/ABC News poll, which is preoccupying the political classes today, is his surprisingly sharp drops among Democrats and even liberals, according to crosstabs that were sent my way.
Much talk today has focused on Obama’s difficulties with independents. But the drop among Dems and liberals is also a key driving factor in the President’s skid, according to WaPo polling analyst Jennifer Agiesta, who graciously provided the additional data.
On the question of whether Pres. Obama will "make the right decisions," confidence dropped 12 points among liberals and 8 points among Democrats from the last poll taken at the 100-day point in his presidency. (The overall drop was 11 points.)
Since April, Pres. Obama has also dropped 11 points overall on his handling of health care, including 11 points among liberals and 6 points among Democrats.
It's no surprise that the president's approval numbers would drop among conservatives and even independents. The fact that they are also dropping among his most ardent supports should be cause for concern in the administration.
The good news is that President Obama is still in a strong position. At 57%, his overall approval numbers are strong, nearly twice that of George W. Bush at just eight months ago. Moreover, the competition is pretty weak: everybody still hates the Republicans. So despite the warning signs, Democrats and the White House are still in very good position. That could change quickly, however, if the growing wariness in the party's base turns into outright anger and rejection. Let's hope it doesn't come to that point.