President 2012 Poll Watch: Obama Approval Slipping Among Blacks and Hispanics?

Though majorities of blacks (85%) and Hispanics (54%) continue to approve of the job Barack Obama is doing as president, his ratings among these groups slipped in March and have set or tied new lows. His approval rating among whites, at 39%, remains above where it was in the latter part of 2010.

Let’s look at the President’s approval among all groups.

But, what is the most important is how President Obama is doing in the key battleground states. The rest of the polling is pretty much noise.

The racial divide in opinions of Obama has been consistent throughout his presidency. The gap grew as large as 56 points last August (91% approval among blacks vs. 35% among whites). The current gap of 46 points is slightly lower, but still considerably larger than the average 34-point gap in the first five months of his presidency.

Blacks and Hispanics are key constituencies for the Obama re-election campaign. However, the President has not been consistently supportive of immigration reform which is an important issue for Hispanic voters. If anything, they may not flock to the polls to support the President.

But, does this matter?

Probably not, since the key battleground states do not have large Hispanic populations – except maybe Florida and Nevada.