The Pew Research Center for the People and Press found that Obama’s approval rating among white voters has dropped below the already slim margin of support he had when he was elected, the National Journal reports, with only collected educated women still uniformly supporting him.
According to the National Journal’s Ronald Brownstein, Obama “ran well among only two groups of whites” in 2008. Those groups were young people and white women with a collected education, “two groups that that are generally receptive to government activism. In the 2010 GOP landslide, those groups stuck with Democrats relatively more loyally than the rest of the white electorate, but the party's support tumbled even among them.”
Upshot is, among whites, Obama flops. Overall, according to Pew, 54 percent of them disapprove of Obama’s performance, while just 38 percent approve.
Which Whites Support Obama
Breaking down those numbers, Obama finds support only among white Democrats, at 76 percent, whites who live in the Northeast, at 47 percent, and college graduates, alos at 47 percent.
National Journal’s Brownstein further explains the data:
Obama's best group in the white electorate remains well-educated women, who tend toward more liberal positions on social issues as well as greater receptivity to government activism. In the new poll, 56 percent of college-educated white women said they approved of Obama's performance. That's a slight improvement from the 52 percent of such women who voted for him in 2008, according to the Edison Research exit poll. It's also a big improvement from the 43 percent of college-plus white women who backed Democratic House candidates in 2010. (Well-educated white women provided substantially more support for Democrats in some key 2010 Senate races, including contests in Colorado, California and Wisconsin.)
The rest of the white electorate remains deeply cool to Obama, the Pew survey found. Just 38 percent of college-educated white men said they approve of the president. That's down from the 42 percent of the vote he won from those men in 2008, and only a slight improvement from the miniscule 35 percent House Democrats won with them in 2010.
Poor Showing Otherwise
Beyond that, the approval numbers for Obama among whites are grim.
56 percent of white men disapprove of Obama’s performance. Just 36 percent approve. Fifty-two percent of white women disapprove of his performance, while just 41 percent approve.
As well, whites of all income groups disapprove of Obama, and he is particularly unliked by the white middle class, or those earning $30,000 to $75,000 annually. Among them, 59 percent disapprove of his performance. Fifty-six percent of whites earning $75,000 or more annually don’t like Obama, and 47 percent earning under $30,000 annually disapprove.
As age groups go, 57 percent of whites older than 50 years disapprove of Obama, along with 51 percent of those between 18 and 49.
Regionally, 67 percent of Southerners and 50 percent of Westerners disapprove of Obama. Unsurprisingly, 86 percent of Republican whites think he is a poor president. Fifty-three percent of independent whites agree.
Obama’s approval rating did not exceed 45 percent for any group of whites except Democrats, the college educated and Northeasterners.
Photo of Barack Obama: AP Images
