It’s NOT ‘liberal’ support which Obama is losing; it is support from the so-called center. Clinton held on to ‘liberal’ support because liberals had no one else to support. but he also held on to a decent percentage of so-called centrists. In 1996, when Clinton was re-elected, so-called centrists had either Bob Dole or Ross Perot to choose from in additona to Clinton, but he STILL managed to maintain enough support from them to win re-elecction with a plurality of the vote.
Barack Obama is unlikely to duplicate that feat, and it has NOTHING to do with voters being any kind of ‘racist’ - overt or subtle.
Wait! I’d like to amend my comment:
Barack Obama may duplicate Clinton’s 1996 popular vote percentage (43%) in 2012, but it would be against one opponent, not two.