Dems weaken in polls as split widens

There can be a lot of disagreement on the importance of recent polls showing Democrats and President Barack Obama losing popularity.

However, it is hard not to worry especially after the Democrats turned over two important governorships to the Republicans in the last election.

Now, we see a split widening somewhat reminiscent of what happened to Bill Clinton during his first term. The funny thing though is that Obama is no blue dog Democrat like Clinton. Yet, today we saw Howard Dean, Keith Olbermann and others come out against the Senate compromise on health care. Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-NY, who seemed quite positive about the bill when it included the new Medicare buy-in is also firing back at the administration's seeming compromise.

What is more problematic is that people are firing back just as hard at the "liberal" side of the party. There is reason to be worried now about 2010, more than ever before, so we will have to watch carefully to see how this all turns out.