Political independent Debra Indelicato doesn't regret her vote last year for Democrat Barack Obama, but eight months into his presidency, she admits being disappointed by his performance.

The 44-year-old electric-utility office worker from Reynoldsburg said Obama has become distracted by the debate on health care and she thinks he should focus more on turning around the economy and creating jobs.

"He got off to a good start, but he's kind of lost his momentum," Indelicato said. "I think he's spread a little thin. I try to give him the benefit of the doubt because I like him so much personally."

Entering the most important period of his fledgling presidency, a politically weakened Obama, no longer enjoying the soothing winds of strong public support at his back, is preparing to prod an uneasy Congress to enact landmark health-care legislation.

As Obama heads for a Cincinnati Labor Day rally Monday to reignite support for a sweeping overhaul of the health-care system, Indelicato could be a face behind poll numbers showing confidence in him waning. Especially troubling for the president is his slippage among independent voters, who, in Ohio last year, preferred him by 8 percentage points over Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

Indelicato was among more than 20 Ohio voters, most of them independents, contacted last week byThe Dispatch to delve behind the poll numbers for insight into Americans' feelings about the president.

As expected, they're complicated, but Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, identified a common thread running through the voters' sentiments.

"People still like Obama personally. It's his policies that many or some are beginning to wonder about," Brown said.

A CNN poll released last week found that 53 percent of political independents now disapprove of Obama's job performance, the first time he has received a thumbs-down rating from independents in a CNN poll. A narrow majority of all respondents in the poll, 51 percent, said they do not support Obama's plan to reform health care.

Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, told The Dispatch last week that Obama has lost support among independents, the group of voters who propelled his 2008 victory, because "folks are beginning to engage on the health-care issue and they don't like what they're hearing and seeing" from the White House.

"People are getting change, but not the change they want or the change they expected," Steele said.

But like so many factors in politics, change, the driving rational for Obama's election, is viewed through the prism of personal circumstances.

"Everybody wants health-care reform, but what one person calls health-care reform another person doesn't," Brown said.

For Amanda Smith, an 18-year-old independent from Wickliffe who cast her first presidential vote for Obama, change hasn't happened fast enough and she now admits that her enthusiasm for him has declined.

"I probably would still vote for Obama, but I wish that he was doing more than he is," Smith said. "I know he's trying. With jobs and the economy, it's not as fast as I hoped."

Smith is in a hurry for Congress to enact health-care coverage for everybody: "Right now, at my age, I can't get health care at all. What am I supposed to do if I get sick?"

Jennifer Martin, 48, who operates an Akron home- and office-cleaning service, has no health insurance and would seem a likely cheerleader for reform, but she has no faith in Obama to do it right. A Democrat, she voted for McCain and would not take it back.

"I do not believe anything Obama is going to do is going to help the person who works, but is more aimed at helping those who are on welfare and do not work," Martin said, fearing that Obama and congressional Democrats will enact a plan that burdens small businesses with extra costs.

Asked if she had confidence that congressional Republicans will offer an acceptable alternative health-care plan, Martin replied, "No, I don't. I would have to see it to believe it."

Renee Tomko, 41, a paralegal from Gahanna, is another Democrat who supported McCain and has been less than impressed by Obama.

"One of the biggest reasons is the health issue," Tomko said. "It feels like socialized medicine. I believe health care needs to be reformed, but this is not the way to do it."

Others, however, said the health-care overhaul sought by Obama can't come soon enough. Pat Hannon, 54, an independent from Twinsburg who voted for Obama and strongly supports him, said Democrats should enact legislation even without GOP votes.

"There are a lot of people in precarious situations, and I'd like to see the Democrats go ahead and tackle it and not wait for Republicans, because I have not heard a Republican say what they would do for health care other than let the insurance industry handle it, which has not worked and will not work," Hannon said.

Jane Greenwald, 55, a Democrat from Dublin, said she is disheartened that the acrimonious health-care debate has taken a toll on Obama's popularity.

"It pains me to see people turning against him," said Greenwald, a high-school guidance counselor. "It certainly would have been easier for him to ditch the health-care project, but that would be cowardly. We need to get a handle on health care, and he'll shoulder the negative poll numbers, and that's OK if we can get it resolved."

There is more than the health-care issue affecting voters' views of Obama. Some independents who voted for him and are now backing away, such as Kenneth Murphy, are worried about the national debt spinning out of control, fueled by corporate bailouts and the Obama-backed $787 billion economic stimulus.

"We did need change and that's what Barack Obama was all about and now he's spending money like crazy," said Murphy, 67, a retired aerospace machinist from Springfield.

But Pamela Blum, 68, a Republican from Ashville who voted for Obama, is still behind him, saying he is "doing the best that he can" to address the economy and health care, adding that the president and his wife, Michelle, are "good people" who possess "good, high morals."

Dispatch reporters Catherine Candisky, Mark Niquette, Jim Siegel and Washington Bureau Chief Jonathan Riskind contributed to this story.

jhallett@dispatch.com

"People are getting change, but not

the change they want or the change they expected."

Michael Steele
chairman of the Republican National Committee