WASHINGTON — After a summer of health care battles and sliding approval ratings for President Barack Obama, the White House is facing a troubling new trend: The voters losing faith in the president are the ones he had worked hardest to attract.
New surveys show steep declines in Obama’s approval ratings among whites, including Democrats and independents, who were crucial elements of the diverse coalition that helped elect the country’s first black president.
Among white Democrats, Obama’s job approval rating has dropped 11 points since his 100-days mark in April, according to surveys by The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. It has dropped by nine points among white independents and whites older than 50, and by 12 points among white women.
Strategists in both parties blame Obama’s decline on growing discontent with his policy agenda, particularly after a month of an often rowdy debate over his proposed health care overhaul, in which conservatives accused him of being a “socialist.”
McClatchy Newspapers
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