Independents Warning for Obama: Mitt is our Guy

The shifting attitude among independent voters, in fact, is the most significant change to emerge from a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, completed just last week. In that survey, Mr. Obama's job-approval rating among Americans overall slipped a notch, to 56% from 61% in April. That's not much of a drop, and is in keeping with the pattern for a new president at this point in his term.

But the slide was much more pronounced among self-identified purely independent voters -- that is, Americans who express no loyalty to either party.

Among these people, who tend to reside in the middle of the ideological spectrum, the president's job-approval rating fell to 45% from 60% in April.

In particular, the survey suggests, independents are developing gnawing fears about government spending. They are markedly more worried about the federal budget deficit as an economic issue than are Americans in general, and they are more likely to be skeptical of Mr. Obama's plan for a health-care overhaul.

Above all, though, independents are starting to simply view the president as more liberal than they expected. The share of independents who say Mr. Obama is a liberal has risen to a substantial 64% from 46% two months ago. A large portion of them actually classify him as "very liberal." That's a particular problem because independents tend to view themselves as center-right -- 78% call themselves moderate or conservative -- so they see a president moving to the left of where they are.

"This is a clear and important danger for him," says Mr. Hart, the Democratic pollster. Independents, he adds, don't seem to worry so much that Mr. Obama is trying to tackle too many issues, but rather that "this administration is leaning much more left than they expected" as he handles those issues.

From the Pew reaserch poll:
The turnaround is largely fueled by a change of opinion among independents—in February 2008 just 29% of independents had a favorable view while 46% had a negative impression. Now that balance is reversed with 44% viewing him favorable and just 25% unfavorably.