Washington Post reports: Obama losing support among independents, still supported strongly by blacks

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Sun Jul-11-10 12:47 PM
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Washington Post reports: Obama losing support among independents, still supported strongly by blacks

Black voters still support Obama but are ambivalent about midterm elections

KANSAS CITY, MO. -- Curtis Adams, who owns Curtis A's barbershop here and who is also the establishment's senior political analyst, is a close observer of President Obama. This is something of a full-time job itself at Curtis A's, a gathering place in a black neighborhood five miles from downtown. All day every day, men (and occasionally women) come for a trim and wind up lingering to argue about jobs and the oil spill and the war in Iraq.

But mostly jobs. "If Obama was in this chair right here, I would tell him to give me a job. That's what I would ask for," said customer E.J. Jones one recent afternoon. Jones has worked off and on since he was let go from an Army ammunition plant in 2008.

The recession was especially rough on Kansas City's black community, where unemployment is 15 percent, nearly three times the rate for whites. Adams pointed to the empty chairs in his shop. He's down 75 customers a week. Of Obama, he said: "That man has a hell of a workload, and Bush left a hell of a mess. I like what he's doing. But I can't feel it."

Despite his frustration with the slow pace of the recovery, Adams, who has portraits of the first family on the walls of his shop, doesn't think Obama bears the blame for his troubles. And neither do most black Americans. Just the opposite: Polls show that 90 percent of African Americans believe Obama is doing a good job, far higher than the president's overall 46 percent approval rating. Obama's popularity has dropped among nearly every segment of the population -- old, young, Republican, Democrat, white, Latino. Yet blacks still overwhelmingly support him, even though they are among those who have lost the most since he was elected.

"We understand the difficulty of being a black man in his position, because of our close proximity to race and how it affects our lives, so we are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt," said Rodney Knott, who runs a fatherhood initiative and blogs on local issues. "Black folks are taking this personal because we identify with him so much. It's like somebody in our family. I can talk about them, but you better not."

"even though they are among those who have lost the most since he was elected"...and yet they still support Obama just because he's not Bush or what?

Meanwhile...

Democrats battle independents' weakening support of Obama and Congress

Of all the problems Democrats face this fall, none may be more challenging than trying to win back the support of independent voters.

President Obama has been going backward with independents for more than a year, and the Democrats stand to suffer the effects in the November elections. The Gallup organization reported this week that just 38 percent of independents now approve of the job Obama is doing, the lowest point in his presidency and down from 56 percent a year ago.

Top Democratic strategists are gloomy enough about the prospect of turning those voters around quickly that they believe the more important priority for the next four months is to maximize turnout among the new voters who backed Obama in 2008. Those new voters may be receptive to partisan appeals. Whether that will help with independents is another question.

What caused the defection of a group that stood solidly with the Democrats in 2008, as well as in 2006, when the party was returned to power in Congress? The factors include dissatisfaction with the economy, a rebellion against the president's agenda and disappointment that Obama hasn't delivered on his campaign promises to change the culture of Washington.

John Weaver, a Republican strategist, pointed to the weak economy as the main cause of Obama's problem with independents. "We have nearly 10 percent unemployment, and the broad middle of the body politic has lost faith in Obama's ability, or focus, in dealing with job creation and the economy," Weaver said. "The president doesn't appear empathetic, though I'm sure he is, and he's allowed the debate to be defined about rising deficits and increased spending."

Jim Dyke, another Republican strategist, said other policy decisions by the president have turned off independents. "The health care law is a good example," he said. "They view it as a government expansion that will increase the deficit, and they are uncertain how it will impact their health care services coverage. They don't believe that the stimulus package has created private sector jobs."

"This is not a liberal country," said Republican strategist John Feehery, "but it is now being governed by liberals in a liberal way, so it was almost a certainty that this reaction would take place."

White House senior adviser David Axelrod said that the criticism of Obama as a big-spending liberal grows out of decisions the president felt he had to make to prevent a depression. "We were forced to do things from the start to deal with this economic crisis that helped create a false narrative about spending and deficits that's had some impact on independent voters," Axelrod said. "And that's something we have to work on."

Think about it: Independent voters (who aren't necessarily pledged to one party) have a lot of influence on elections. Scott Brown anyone?