Polls show that around 10 per cent of those who voted for Obama in 2008 now disapprove of his performance
and the heavy turnout of young people and black voters among the 69 million who back him will not be repeated again.
That reality has now begun to dawn on some of Obama's natural constituency - Hollywood and the Left. The
"no drama Obama" demeanour that served him so well on the campaign trail is now becoming a liability..............
Bemoaning Obama's passivity after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the director Spike Lee thundered: "He's
very calm, cool, collected. But, one time, go off! If there's any one time to go off, this is it, because this is a disaster."
This is the same Spike Lee who once described Obama's election as a "seismic" change that represented "a better day not only for the United States but for the world".
The ladies of The View, the liberal-dominated morning talk show moderated by Whoopi Goldberg, spent a lot of time last week sympathising with Mrs Obama about how difficult it must be to argue with a husband who never shows any fire or emotion.
Even the liberal chattering classes are deserting Obama. Maureen Dowd of the New York Times jeered that his
"Yes we can" slogan had been downgraded to "Will we ever?", while fellow colunnist Frank Rich blasted his "recurrent tardiness in defining exactly what he wants done".
It is now permissible – even fashionable – to have a go at the man
once hailed as the Messiah.