Smith's Politico report this week was about independent voters apparently losing confidence in Obama. It's all part of the Beltway media's rather odd obsession with being the first to pinpoint when Obama's historically strong poll numbers head south. (Politico has jumped that gun before.)

The ritual is pretty much opposite of the one that existed under Bush, when the same press corps seemed obsessed with being the first to spot Bush's polling rebound. But, alas, it never came.

Here's Smith [emphasis added]:

In a potentially alarming trend for the White House, independent voters are deserting President Barack Obama nationally and especially in key swing states, recent polls suggest.

And fyi, the Politico article was picked up and reprinted in my local newspaper under the headline:

Poll finds independents abandoning Obama

For the record, the Politico pointed to a couple of tracking polls that showed Obama down 5 and 6 percent among independent voters. That's where the “abandoning” and “deserting” language comes from.

But oddly enough, here's Chris Cillizza this week from washingtonpost.com, looking at the same issue of Obama and independent voters:

The Most Important Number in Politics Today

59

That's the percent of independent voters who approve of the job President Barack Obama is doing, according to Gallup polling conducted over the past month.

Obama's numbers among independents are down slightly from Gallup polling in January (62 percent approve) but consistent with where he stood in March (59 percent) and April (60 percent).