Poll: Obama losing some '08 voters

The AP has moved some cross-tabs on President Obama from its latest poll, and they signal some low points with his 2008 coalition as the GOP moves closer to picking a general election candidate.

He's lost ground according to the AP-GfK data, with white voters, women, liberals and younger voters, in surveys taken just after the debt-ceiling debate.


The key figures are:

* Just 36 percent of white voters approve of the job he's doing, while 59 percent say he should lose in November 2012. That's down from 56 percent after his first three months in office, ,and he is upside-down with this group in every region except the Northeast.

* Three in ten white independents say he should get a second term, and 41 percent of them say he "understands the problems of people like them."

* Liberals who say Obama is "very well" described as a "strong leader" went from 53 percent to 29 percent.

* Women, who had fueled a gender gap for the president with 68 percent approving of his performance after his first three months in office, are also moving away from him. Now, 50 percent of women say he should be re-elected, and less than half of all women approve of how he's doing in office.

The numbers will obviously shift as a general election begins, and younger voters and liberals are especially likely to move back toward him. But the former two are, depending on the GOP nominee, a bit of a tougher push.

This article tagged under: Barack Obama