Debt Deal May Erode Independent Support For Obama

http://www.npr.org/2011/08/04/138967040/debt-deal-may-erode-independent-support-for-obama

"My sense is that the public is very unhappy, disenchanted — you know, outraged, really — at what looked like an amateurish performance on everybody's part," said J. Ann Selzer, a veteran Iowa-based pollster. "And independents in particular are kind of caught in an unhappy middle."

The data regarding independent voters also contain troubling news for a president seeking re-election.

"It's independent voters that elected him to office. That's their game. That's how they win, and right now the polling trends show that independent voters are polling more like Republicans than they are like Democrats," Selzer said. "They've got to win them back; they've got to raise those numbers if they expect to win the White House again."

**Opinion**

At this point, it probably should.