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Over the past few days, media coverage has been dedicated almost entirely to the debt negotiations between President Obama and more outspoken members of Congress. As the Los Angeles Times pointed out , this let slide an interesting statement by the self-described democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, who said, “I think it would be good if President Obama faced some primary opposition.” For one of the most outspoken defenders of universal healthcare, same-sex marriage, and environmentalism to be challenging Obama signals major problems with what should be Obama's most ardent base of supporters, which is also confirmed by new polls from CBS, NBC, and ABC. The networks, however, are failing to report their own polls because they reflect poorly on the president. Obama's campaign team has been forcing a centrist image upon the president gearing up for 2012, vying for the independents who pushed him to victory in 2008. The independents were the ones who abandoned Obama first, dropping their support when America wanted solutions to the economy and jobs but all Obama wanted to do was pass healthcare through Congress. Progressive politicians like Sanders have been turned off by the centrist branding of Obama. As Sanders explained , “I think one of the reasons President Obama has moved as far to the right as he has is he thinks he can go all the way and no one will stand up to him.” Independents seem to have dumped him for the opposite reason, for being too progressive, but if Obama can't hold support from either side of the balance, then his base of support will wither away. According to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll , Sanders and the independents are not the only ones in Obama's crumbling base of support. Some of the highlights from their polling: 82% of Americans still say the job market in their area is struggling [N]early half…call it “very” difficult to find jobs in their area Ninety percent rate [the national economy] negatively, including half who give the economy the most negative rating, “poor.” [A] mere 15 percent say they're “getting ahead financially” Obama’s approval rating on handling the economy has slipped below 40 percent for the first time, to 39 percent. Fifty-seven percent disapprove, and strong disapprovers outnumber strong approvers by more than 2 to 1 Likewise, CBS found only 43% of respondents approved of Obama's handling of debt ceiling negotiations, and NBC News/Wall Street Journal found 54% disapproved of the way Obama is handling the economy as a whole. As NewsBusters and MRC's Kyle Drennen explains , though, the media avoided discussing Obama's poor polling in favor of discussing low polling numbers for Republicans. All three networks did find time to use their respective poll findings to focus blame for the stalemate on the Republican Party.