Poll finds Obama’s support has shrunk below a majority

In the Quinnipiac University survey, 48 percent of registered voters approved of the job Obama is doing, while 42 percent disapproved. But 52 percent of those surveyed disapproved of his handling of the economy and 49 percent disapproved of Obama’s handling of the Afghanistan war.

“Increasingly, the president finds himself with two different coalitions, one that backs him on domestic matters and a completely different one that backs him on Afghanistan,’’ Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a statement.

Obama also faces gender and racial gaps in support. While 52 percent of women approved of his job performance, the poll found, 47 percent of men did. And while 89 percent of black respondents and 62 percent of Hispanics approved, only 41 percent of whites did.

His support also was lower with older and richer respondents.

Obama himself doesn’t seem to be worrying much about his poll numbers, saying on CNN yesterday that he is taking on major issues that he knows will create “political turbulence.’’

Asked whether he could envision a scenario in which he didn’t seek reelection in 2012, he replied, “I don’t want to be making decisions based on getting reelected, because I think the challenges that America faces right now are so significant . . . If I feel like I’ve made the very best decisions for the American people and three years from now I look at it and, you know, my poll numbers are in the tank and . . . politically, I’m in a tough spot, I’ll feel all right about myself.’’ - GLOBE STAFF

Setting records is old news to the white-maned Byrd, whose career in Washington began in 1952 with his election to the House and his elevation six years later to the Senate.

Byrd’s colleagues have elected him to more leadership positions than any senator in history. He has cast more than 18,000 votes and, despite fragile health that has kept him from the Senate floor during much of this year, has a nearly 98 percent attendance record over the course of his career, which by Byrd’s count has spanned 20,774 days.

It’s been long enough for him to rescind positions that he once trumpeted, such as his opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act; lengthy enough to voice his regret about joining the Ku Klux Klan; and long enough to see and cheer the first black president and to watch his onetime rival and later dear friend, Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, die of brain cancer. -- ASSOCIATED PRESS

Obama’s nominee for undersecretary of the Treasury for international affairs, Lael Brainard, is his fifth to reveal tax issues during the congressional vetting process. Brainard was late in paying real estate taxes in 2005, 2006, and 2007 on property in Northern Virginia, according to the report by the Senate Finance Committee staff. Brainard paid $121.75 in interest and $1,279.34 in penalties on late real estate tax payments. -- ASSOCIATED PRESS