December 07, 2010 09:36 PM UTC

Obama's "Liberal Problem" Overstated?

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Today’s press conference defending the compromise, via MSNBC:

From our friends at “The Fix“:

The rising din of criticism from the left raises an obvious question: Does Obama have a liberal problem?

The answer, polling suggests, is not really.

In the latest  Associated Press survey, which was conducted Nov. 18-22, Obama’s standing quite strong among liberals.

While just 48 percent of the overall sample approve of the job Obama is doing, 80 percent of self-identified liberals feel the same — a stratospherically high number.

The story is much the same on Obama’s personal favorability ratings. An AP poll in the field just after the 2010 election showed that 90 percent of liberals felt favorably inclined to Obama as compared to 55 percent overall.

While polling may suggest that Obama doesn’t really have a “liberal problem” with voters, it will be interesting to watch over the next 2 years to see if he does have “liberal problem” with volunteers and small donors–where the base dissatisfaction we’ve been talking about would manifest.