L.A. TIMES: New polls confirm Obama’s Democratic base crumbles. “Strong support among liberal Democrats for Obama’s jobs record has plummeted 22 points from 53% down below a third. African Americans who believe the president’s measures helped the economy has plunged from 77% to barely half.”

UPDATE: Reader Michael Costello writes on last night’s Obama speech: “Last night, Barack Obama asked Americans to contact their congressman and give an opinion about how the debt ceiling crisis should be solved. I took his advice and tried to contact my representative and both senators. It took hours because the traffic was so high. But today, I’m reading nothing about how the volume of traffic or in which direction the opinions swayed. I’m inferring from that silence that things didn’t go Obama’s way.’