(IsraelNN.com) U.S. President Barack Obama may be losing domestic support, according to a new poll. The president's favorable rating has dropped and is now below that of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, his former political rival.

The Gallup poll shows that Obama's approval ratings dropped from almost 80 percent in January of 2009 to 56 percent in October 2009. During that same period, Clinton's approval rating dropped only slightly, from 65 percent to 62 percent.

U.S.-based analysts suggested that the reversal in public support could indicate that Americans support Obama's foreign policy – represented by Clinton – but disapprove of his domestic policies.

The drop in support took place mostly among supporters of the Republican party and independent voters, and not among members of Obama's own Democratic party, researchers found. Among Democrats, support for Obama remained at nearly 90 percent, while among Republican voters it has dropped to a mere 19 percent.

Clinton also received much more support from Democrats than from Republicans, with a 91 percent approval rating among supporters of her party versus 55 percent from independents and 35 percent from Republicans.

The study did not take Obama's recent Nobel Peace Prize victory into account. However, other polls have shown that receiving the Peace Prize did not have a lasting effect on the American president's popularity.