Popularity

Obama Loses White Voters

Down 11 points among white Democrats.

It doesn't matter if they're Democrats, independents, or Republicans—white voters are abandoning the Obama bandwagon. According to surveys by the Pew Research Center, Obama's approval rating has dropped 11 points among white Democrats, nine points among white independents and whites over 50, and by 12 points among white women—groups that will be crucial in next year's midterm elections, the Los Angeles Times reports. Evidently, the slippage began after the July news conference in which Obama said a white police officer acted "stupidly" while arresting a black Harvard professor. Controversies over health care and the wide publication of false rumors that Obama is a secret Muslim born overseas are also believed to have contributed to the drop. The resignation on Saturday of green-jobs czar Van Jones and the controversy over Obama's Tuesday address to the nation's schoolchildren may have a further adverse impact. Evidently, the post-racial era isn't post-racial after all.