Uh Oh: New Polls Spell Trouble for Obama

Published July 20, 2011 6:41pm ET



First, Public Policy Polling — a Democratic Firm — reports “Obama in Peril“: 

For the first time since last July Barack Obama does not lead Mitt Romney in PPP’s monthly national poll on the 2012 Presidential race. Romney has now pulled into a tie with the President at 45%.

Obama’s approval rating this month is 46% with 48% of voters disapproving of him. There are 2 things particularly troubling in his numbers: independents split against him by a 44/49 margin, and 16% of Democrats are unhappy with the job he’s doing while only 10% of Republicans give him good marks. Republicans dislike him at this point to a greater extent than Democrats like him and that will be a problem for him moving forward if it persists.

Romney takes advantage of those 2 points of weakness for Obama. He leads the President by 9 points with independents at 46-37. And he earns more crossover support, getting 13% of the Democratic vote while only 8% of Republicans are behind Obama.

And PPP isn’t alone. Obama’s been at 42 percent approval in the last couple of measures of Gallup’s rolling average with 50 and 48 percent disapproval.