Whites' Support for Obama Drops

President Obama better hope his “beer summit” goes well: “President Barack Obama's approval rating among white Americans has fallen as they have watched him wade into the racially tinged dispute between a white Cambridge, Mass., police officer and a well-known black Harvard scholar,” according to the Associated Press. The poll was conducted from July 22-26. On Wednesday and Thursday, 53 percent of whites approved of Obama’s job performance; on Friday through Sunday, only 46 percent of whites approved. With 80 percent of respondents saying they had heard of Obama’s “acted stupidly” comment, the poll by Pew found that 41 percent of respondents disapproved of Obama’s handling of the Gates controversy, with only 29 percent approving.