“Every policy outcome for liberals is a loss at this point,” said a senior party operative, reflecting the prevailing view among progressives that the alternatives mulled by Obama in the debt talks range from the awful to the unthinkable.

“We may win on the politics,” the operative said, “but the policy battle is lost. It’s just depressing.”

Several recent polls show unmistakable signs of Obama’s slippage with this core group. A Washington Post survey released last week found that the percentage of self-described liberals who “strongly” support the president’s performance on jobs has fallen 22 points over the last, from 53 percent to 31 percent now.

The percentage of African-American Democrats, the core of Obama’s electoral core, who think he’s doing a good job on the economy has plummeted from 77 percent last year to a little over 50 percent now.