Independent voters sour on President Obama

In what could be a potentially bad sign for his re-election bid, President Obama has lost major ground with self-described independent voters this summer.

A new Pew Research Center poll finds just 31 percent of independents say Obama deserves a second term in office, down 11 points since May. A majority of independent respondents—54 percent—disapprove of Obama's job performance, the highest number of his presidency, according to the Pew poll.

That drop off in independent support has fueled a similar decline in Obama's overall poll numbers. According to the Pew survey, just 41 percent of all voters want to see Obama re-elected, while 40 percent say they'd rather vote for the GOP candidate in the race. In May, Obama lead a generic Republican by 11 points.

Why is Obama's declining appeal among independents such a big deal? Independents were the swing voting bloc credited with putting Obama over the top in 2008--and are sure to be crucial again in 2012.

According to Pew, Obama's re-election support is on par with where former President George H.W. Bush was in 1991, the year before he lost his bid for a second term. But in one hopeful sign for the incumbent president, Obama appears to be outperforming Bill Clinton's position in 1995, the year before he was re-elected.

But the country is in a far more dismal mood these days than it was during past presidential election years. According to Pew, 79 percent of those polled say they are "dissatisfied" with the state of the nation. Ninety-one percent say they believe the economy poor, while only 38 percent say their personal finances are in good shape.