Obama approval dips below 50 percent

A new poll out today is another red flag for President Obama -- it is the first national survey to put his overall approval rating below the symbolic 50 percent mark.

In the Quinnipiac University survey, 48 percent of registered voters approve of the job Obama is doing, while 42 percent disapprove. But on the economy, 52 percent disapprove of his handling of the issue and only 43 percent approve. And on the Afghanistan war, 49 percent disapprove of Obama's performance and only 38 percent approve.

As worrisome for the White House, those who support him on the economy are not the same respondents who support him on Afghanistan.

"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. That could create a challenge to his considerable political skills," 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 approve his job performance, the poll found, 47 of men do. And while 89 percent of black respondents and 62 percent of Hispanics approve, only 41 percent of whites do. His support also is lower with older and richer respondents.

The survey, conducted Nov. 9-16, has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Obama, himself, doesn't seem to be worrying too much about his poll numbers.

In an interview with CNN today, he was asked whether he could envision a scenario where he didn't seek reelection in 2012.

"Here's how I think about it," Obama replied. "I said to myself very early on, even when I started running for office, that 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. Obviously, if I make good decisions and I think that I'm moving the country on the right direction economically, in terms of our security interests, our foreign policy, I'd like to think that those policies are continued because they're not going to bear fruit just in four years.

"But, you know, 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, you know, because we've gone through these wrenching changes, you know, politically, I'm in a tough spot, I'll feel all right about myself," he added.

"I'd feel a lot worse if at a time of such urgency for the American people, I was spending a lot of time thinking how can I position myself to ensure reelection, because if I was doing that right now, I wouldn't have taken on health care. I wouldn't be taking on things that are unpopular. I wouldn't be closing Guantanamo. Tthere are a whole series of choices that I'm making that I know are going to create some political turbulence."