Barack Obama Hemorrhaging Catholic Support

President Barack Obama announced onFriday that he is changing a Health and Human Services mandate that all large employers must provide comprehensive birth-control coverage to women, including Catholic organizations -- but, according to a poll released on Tuesday, the damage was already done.

A poll from Rasmussen Reports finds that 59 percent of likely Catholic voters disapprove of Obamas performance, while 40 percent approve of it. Even worse for Obama, only 19 percent of those Catholic likely voters strongly approve of his performance in office, while 44 percent strongly disapprove of it.

Obama carried the Catholic vote in 2008, taking 54 percent, while Republican candidate John McCain won 45 percent of it. With one exception -- Democrat Mike Dukakis who edged George H.W. Bush with Catholics, 52 percent to 48 percent back in 1988 -- Catholic voters have broken to the winner of the popular vote in every election since 1968, when they backed Hubert Humphrey over Richard Nixon. Even in 2004, Catholics backed George W. Bush over Democrat John Kerry, who is a Catholic.

Obama clearly needs to mend fences with these Catholic voters if he wants a second term -- especially in heavily populated Catholic swing states like Ohio, Florida, New Mexico, New Hampshire and Nevada.

The Rasmussen Reports poll of 3,500 likely voters was taken Feb. 6-12 and had a margin of error of +/- 2 percent.