Four in 10 Americans “strongly” disapprove of how President Obama is handling job as president in the new Washington Post-ABC News poll, the highest that number has risen during his time in office and a sign of the hardening opposition to him as he seeks a second term.

While the topline numbers are troubling enough, dig deeper into them and the news gets no better for Obama. Forty-three percent of independents — a group the president spent the better part of the last year courting — strongly disapprove of the job he is doing. Forty seven percent of people 65 years of age and older — reliable voters in any election — strongly disapprove of how he is doing his job…

And even as his strong disapproval numbers have steadily risen, his strong approval numbers have gone into a mirror-image decline.