The question above is the exact question that Roger Simon asks in a new post over at Politco.
But what do the Great Gods of Politics, the opinion polls, show?
They show a country that still likes Obama more than it likes Romney. And by quite a bit.
As I have written for years, I have a simple — OK, simple-minded — way of determining who is going to win the presidency: The more likable candidate wins. Not always, but almost always.
On Aug. 2, a survey published by the well-respected Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found Obama was leading Romney by 51-41 percent for the presidency, the eighth time in a row since January that Obama has led Romney by between 4 and 12 percentage points.
But more importantly by my Simple Simon standard of likability, Romney’s favorable/unfavorable rating was 37/52 compared with Obama’s 50/45. Which means Romney had a net unfavorable rating of 15 points while Obama had a net favorable of 5 points.
Very true and nicely illustrated at our year end tennis party this summer. Two of my co-workers, both of whom voted for John McCain in 2008 (and one who is my supervisor and life long Republican), were completely confounded by Romney's statements on his recent trip abroad.
"That was just rude...what he said about London," my supervisor remarked. "What was he thinking? You don't do that. And he wants to be president?"
"Yeah," my other co-worker said, "Obama is going to wipe the floor with him in the debates. Romney's a complete idiot and I don't really like him. I am voting for Obama."
"I may actually as well," my supervisor said. "He's not as bad as everyone makes him out to be. He's done a good job. I like him."
The conversation completely torpedoed the notion that your average Joe doesn't pay attention to politics until after Labor Day. People are paying attention to what Romney is doing and they don't really like what they see. Will they ever?
Oh, and why is John McCain, who has seen all 23 years of Romney's tax returns, not calling Harry Reid a "dirty liar?" I wonder why he hasn't really said much on the subject.
6 comments:
People are paying attention to what Romney is doing and they don't really like what they see.
Are they paying attention to what he's doing or what/how the media is reporting what he's doing?
If Obama wasn't personally likable this election would be over already and liberals would be standing at the bottom of a big crater wondering what happened. You should be thanking every Republican you know for nominating such a piss poor candidate.
I'd be interested in hearing which Republican candidate there would be that could beat the president. It's not simply that he is personally likable. He's done a good job considering what he was handed. What could he have done better and what would the outcome have been? Be specific.
Are they paying attention to what he's doing or what/how the media is reporting what he's doing?
Well, once again we are back to the Palin thing. Remember the Couric interview? Yeah, that was Katie's fault...just like it's all the media's fault, right?
I'd be interested in hearing which Republican candidate there would be that could beat the president.
Well generic was polling pretty nicely for a while. For me personally, Gov. Johnson was the choice - but obviously not for Republicans - go figure. Other than him, I thought the field of Republican wannabes was pretty sad. I'm not a Christie fan but I think he would've been a better choice than Romney (let alone Santorum or Gangrene). I like Paul but he really is a bit of a crazy uncle - never stood a chance. The point is that Obama is likeable and that is what is carrying his ass - not his policy and not the state of the economy. You can delude yourself about that, but it is what it is.
Who's bringing up Palin?
Yay! More invented 'friends'! I hope some of them were gay and black...
Post a Comment