The president is losing his home field advantage.
A new Tribune/WGN poll show public support for Barack Obama, who hails from Chicago, is slipping along with the rest of the country.
Less than 60 percent of Illinois voters approve of the job he’s doing. He won the state with 62 percent of the vote.
"That's not good news for [Obama] because it is down from where he was in November, and it is his home state," David Yepsen, the executive director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale told the Trib.
The Trib/WGN pollsters interviewed 700 people for the poll and the found that 59 percent approve of Obama’s work.
While that number still seems high, it is down from the 67 percent approval in the first month.
He took a worse hit on health care.
Just 42 percent of Illinoisans approve of his handling of the overhaul, while 43 percent disapprove.
Furthermore, nearly 50 percent of those interviewed think he hasn’t done enough on the economy, either.
This isn’t terrible news for Obama. But it’s bad news for home state Democrats who were hoping to ride the Obama wave into government seats.
"Democrats in this state are kind of beleaguered. They need to get the Obama voters out in 2010 to offset the Blagojevich factor," Yepsen said. They’ll find "no wind at their back from Obama."
The Trib poll did find that Chicago is still overwhelmingly with the pres: 85 percent of voters here like what he’s doing.
Check out the Trib for more data.
