To revisit one of the issues I discussed in an exchange with Glenn Greenwald at Salon last week, there’s a new Gallup weekly presidential approval tracking poll out, and it’s another interesting data point on the question of whether the White House strategy of ignoring progressive advice to appeal to independent voters is significantly hurting him with the former group or helping him with the latter.
So far, the answer seems to be: no and no. For July 25-31, Gallup shows the president’s approval rating dropping to 42%, a new low for his entire presidency. But among self-identified liberals, his approval rating ticked up last week to 72%, pretty much where it’s been all year (the same characterization is true of his 78% approval rating among Democrats). Meanwhile, among self-identified independents, the approval number dropped to an all-time low of 37%, and among “pure independents” (i.e., those not objectively leaning towards either party) to an abysmal 28%, matching his all-time low.
Maybe as the debt limit deal sinks in, these numbers will change. But for the moment, whatever opinion-leaders in either camp say or think, rank-and-file progressives are sticking with Obama and indies are spurning his overtures. Go figure.