Field Poll Shows Californians Abandoning Obama

By Chriss Street

California voters are becoming critical of the job Barack Obama is doing as President. According to the latest Field Poll reveals that 51% of California voters approve of the President’s overall performance, but 43% now disapprove. This represents an 8 point increase coming from some of the President’s strongest former supporter groups since July. The rise in dissatisfaction is being driven by independents, Latinos, union-affiliated households and women. It seems that Obama’s bumbling of healthcare and foreign policy may even have consequences in the Peoples’ Republic.

The President has been continuously in the doghouse with American voters since the second week in December of 2012. He hit an all-time low for both terms of his Presidency today with a negative 24% according to the Rasmussen Reports in the spread between voters who say he is doing a good job versus a poor job. But until this week’s report, Californian’s voters have been Obama’s rock, with an average positive performance spread of plus 24%. But in the last ten months the number of independents who are dissatisfied with Obama almost doubled to 40%; but even the number of Democrats also doubled to 18%.

The ballooning of the President’s negatives has come since September, when most Californians were evenly split on the direction of our nation. But recently that number has crashed and now only 33% of Californians say the country is moving in the right direction, with “55% saying it is seriously off on the wrong track”. It seems that many people on the “Left Coast” are tiring of the mighty communicator’s narrative.

Two topics are driving down Obama support. More Californians now disapprove (50%) than approve (43%) of the way Obama is handling health care, his signature domestic policy issue. Early in his tenure, The Field Poll had shown very large majorities supportive of the President handling of the nation’s foreign policy; voters now offer a more mixed assessment, with 49% approving and 40% disapproving.

Obama and the Democrats political “secret sauce” in California has been their pandering to demographic subgroups of voters. But the trend seems to no longer be their friend. The President’s job approval ratings have declined the most among the California electorate that had been among the President’s strongest supporters. According to Field, “the proportions disapproving have increased by 16 points among independents with no party preference, 16 points among Latinos, 18 points among union-affiliated households, and 13 points among women. With women comprising 55% of voters, the klaxon horn is going off for Democrats in California as halo from Obama’s female approval falling from 40% to 27%.

Meg Whitman, former California Republican candidate for governor and now brilliant turnaround CEO at Hewlett Packard said: “You know, I think, people of all stripes in California, Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, liberals, frankly, as I have traveled the state, the number one issue is jobs. And they are looking for which candidate can get the economy back on track.” Amazingly, the President’s performance on the economy is only down modestly; with about as many approving (49%) as now disapproving (45%). With California suffering the second highest “U-6” unemployment rate in the country at 18.3% versus a national average of 14.3% according to Bureau of Labor Statistic, if Obama and the Democrats start getting blamed for the dismal economy, we could be in for national and California regime change.