By Dave Andrusko

"It's Obama's policies that are hurting him right now. By a 13-point margin, voters are down on the health care law. In an especially troubling sign, more than half of self-identified independents -- 54 percent -- have an unfavorable opinion of the law, compared with just 38 percent who have a favorable opinion."
     -- From "Poll: Rocky road seen ahead for Obama," which appears in today's POLITICO.

"The students on this leafy, generally liberal campus [University of Wisconsin at Madison] once constituted one of the strongest battalions in Obama's grass-roots army. Two years later, the political dynamic has changed. Across campus, stickers, signs or chalkings for any politician are scarce. The laundromat where Obama's young volunteers once staged late-night phone banks and planned bus trips to neighboring Iowa has gone out of business. And some students who say they voted for Obama in 2008 now say they don't even know who's on the ballot this fall."
     -- From "Obama looks to reenergize youth vote, get late Democratic surge for midterms," which ran in today's Washington Post.
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It is unfair to state what seems to be the obvious? That large swathes of Americas have awakened from the dream or have moved along to something beyond hero worship of Barack Obama?

The most obvious index coming out of the two stories mentioned above is that in a POLITICO / George Washington University Battleground Poll a paltry 38% said Obama deserves to be re-elected, while "Forty-four percent said they will vote to oust him, and 13 percent said they will consider voting for someone else," according to Jim VandeHei and Charles Mahtesian.

Understandably, the dominant political narrative over the next five weeks will be that the public is driven by anxiety over the economy/jobs/national debt. But in the process, reporters ought to recall what USA Today's Susan Page mentioned this morning on a WAMU radio: that in traveling around the country, what she heard was everyone talking about healthcare!

The aforementioned poll asked respondents their opinion of the "new health reform law." Only 42% held a favorable opinion (18% very favorably and 24% somewhat favorably) versus 54% who did not (13% somewhat unfavorable and 41% very unfavorable).

The famous intensity factor on display again. Nearly two and one-half times as many people hold a very unfavorable opinion of ObamaCare as held a very favorable opinion.

And if the pot of gold at the end of the electoral rainbow is Independents, POLITICO reports that 54 percent of them "have an unfavorable opinion of the law, compared with just 38 percent who have a favorable opinion."

One other item from the Post story. Why is Obama going to Madison, Wisconsin in the first place?

"President Obama will swoop into the heartland this week in a high-stakes bid to boost enthusiasm for Democrats by reigniting the coalition of young and minority voters who were critical to his success two years ago. With polls showing independent voters swinging toward Republicans in Wisconsin and the nation's other battlegrounds, Democrats are turning elsewhere to make up ground."

If, in an off-election year, you are relying on 18-22-year-olds [in or out of college] to save your bacon, you are in deep, deep, deep trouble.