Tweet
The already extremely close presidential election has gotten even closer. President Obama and Mitt Romney are perfectly tied at 47 percent each in the latest national poll of registered voters by Washington Post-ABC New.
The problem for Obama is that his job approval rating remains poor. His overall job approval rating is an anemic 47 percent approve to 49 percent disapprove, but his ratings on health care and the economy are dismal. Only 41 percent approve of how Obama has handled the issue of health care, while 52 percent disapprove. His numbers are equally bad on the more important issue of the economy, where he gets just 44 percent approve compared to 54 percent disapprove.
Obama’s terrible marks on the economy continue to allow Romney to hold the edge on that issue. Among registered voters 48 percent think Romney would do a better job with the economy, and only 45 percent think Obama would. Given that the economy is the all important issue, Romney’s advantage on it is helping to keep the race close.
The positive news for the Obama campaign is that Obama is seen as substantially more likable and empathetic than Romney. By an impressive 63 percent to 27 percent margin people say Obama is a more friendly and likable person. Similarly 50 percent say Obama is better able to understand the economic issues facing regular people compared to 40 percent who say that about Romney. It would seem the Obama campaign’s push to frame Romney as a rich, out of touch, outsourcer of jobs is pushing these divides even wider.
29 Comments
“Only 41 percent approve of how Obama has handled the issue of health care, …”
LOL. As the Medicaid Expansion goes into total freefall, the democrats duplicity and incompetence is revealed and the number of people likely to be helped by ACA decreases by the day. Yet we are left with no alternative but to reward the progenitors of our current economic malaise.
We have perfected a system that rewards failure. Go out and screw things up and when your opposition can’t (or won’t) fix things fast enough, the voters will give you another whack at it.
Is this a great country or what?
Tracking poll randomness. What is the margin of error?
Nate Silver’s model shows a 67.3% chance of an Obama win with the popular vote being 50.7% Obama. Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Colorado are the tipping states.
Nevada, NH, Ohio, Virginia, and Iowa are the return-on-investment states. Watch for campaign trips to these five.
And it is still far away from the election. And I suspect that the views of folks who don’t pick up their phones to answer polls is not random.
These polls are essentially irrelevant nowadays anyway. Pollsters don’t call cell phones and the vast majority of Americans under 30 no longer have home phones. Millions of voters go unaccounted for as a result. We saw this four years ago with Obama garnering votes 3 points stronger than he was polling the day before the election.
I have a hard time reconciling this with all the polls likewise saying that Romney’s tenure with Bain capital is hurting him. So these same voters supposedly want the chief looter to be in charge??
-stewartm
The problem Obama and the democrats have is their policies (unlike their rhetoric) is so closely alligned with the republicans they cant distinguish themselves from the republicans and can only resort to character assassination. Who cares if Romney is rich? If I had his wealth I wld have a Swiss Bank Account also. Another problem for Obama and his campaign is they are far to cute, to political, and to gimmicky. His calling for tax cuts for the middle class right before the election is one of the few promises of transparency he has kept. You can see right through it. Its a political ploy with no chance of happening.
I realize Obama cant run on his record but in my opinion he wld better off being honest about his failures and his challenges and most importantly why his vision is different than his opponent. Lying about Romney outsourcing jobs overseas and trying to get people upset over the man’s wealth is not a path to victory. Instead of calling for tax cuts for the middle class something he knows he cant get why not address extending benefits for the unemployed? Or better yet talk about a jobs plan that actually puts people back to work instead of sounding like it does.
Decision time draws near
Soon, we will be able to choose-
Poison or gunshot.
Totally up to you, you have hard-fought voting rights. Watch your teevee and be “informed”.
Poison and gunshot are making sure you have no other choices. We live in a democracy.
Go ahead, choose….
Romney and Obama are tied … together, for both are “about” money … that is “what” they are “tied” … to … even individually, that is what each IS about, both want “more” and both are willing to do whatever it “takes” … to get the money and help “money”, in the “general” … as well as specifically.
Both have attained a “perfection” … of sorts.
Although “that” is, apparently, ubiquitous among members of the political class … these two have, by hook or by crook, reached the very pinnacle.
It is difficult to choose between them, apparently, as your article Jon, suggests … and it is simply too bad that there are no other possible options.
And that … is the way it is.
Good grief! And Good luck, tomorrow … everyone.
You might have need of it.
We all might.
DW
Pathological liars need to be fundamentally empathetic; it’s essential in achieving the level of undetectible mendacity needed to manipulate their marks.
“Poison or gunshot”
I have used this metaphor before. Those choosing poison should remember that it may take longer, will be more painful along the way and in the end you are just as dead.
O needs to turn on the empathy bullshit spigot…that will fix everything!
You and ducktree, have just announced the gist of the “new” Obama campaign, aprecoup …
Let ‘er rip!
DW
I think of Romney as today’s Al “Chainsaw” Dunlap.
I don’t understand why the media hasn’t recently revisited the Dunlap episodes as teachable moments.
Approval for the health care bill would be much higher if it was Medicare for all, or at least have a “Robust public option”. Hope and Change was such a crock. I give up on voting for illusions and compromised visions of political “realism”. I’ll be voting Green and hope Rocky and Jill can find some way of joining forces..
I feel like I could just, you know, have a beer with Obummer. He’s that kind of guy, you can’t do that with plastic mormon boy.
Nevermind the presididn’t would piss it all out on my shoes and tell me it’s raining, but I could have a beer with the war criminal as long as I could use it to lure him into a citizen’s arrest and ship him off to … I was going to say the Hague, but maybe a secret prison would be better, somewhere where habeus corpus doesn’t exist and due-process has been perverted to mean “do-whatever-the fuck-we-want” process.
How weird. Nobody much likes Obama, and yet he “is seen” as being more likable. He is theoretically a nice guy.
If the US didn’t have an electoral college, these poll numbers would be fearful news for Obama. But since it does, the vote is divided up by states and electors. Romney has huge leads in the red states, but Obama has California and most of the East Coast locked up. If you’ve got a thirty-point lead in five states and your opponent has a ten-point lead in fifteen states, chances are good your opponent will rake in more electoral votes.
What do ya think an electoral college education will cost, PW?
Bet we can’t afford it.
DW
It’s hard to argue with a straight face that Romney could do worse thn Obama on the economy. (not that he could do any better, but let’s not split hairs)
The rest of us are just along for the ride.
At least it will be interesting.
IMO many of these people are simply and irrecconcilably anti-Obama or anti-black. Could be the same thing.
Soon, we will be able to choose-
Poison or gunshot.
South Park: Giant douche vs. turd sandwich.
The polls are interesting, to me. But, you know I’m easily entertained. Media has to report someting. No hurricanes, tornado season is mostly over, not many plane crashes anymore (good thing). Clemens and Edwards trials finished. I suspect from now until the election, unless Janet Jackson exposes another breast or Ernest Borgnine springs back to life, polls is all we have to look forward to. That and unrelenting heat and humidity.
newcarguy, sorry, totally off topic, but OmAli told me you like vintage/classic cars and I have a great album of pictures on facebook of a local car cruise from last Saturday. If you’d like to see them, I can email you a linkee if you send me (katdesign99AThotmailDOTcom) an address. You don’t need a fb account to see them.
OK, an on topic edit:
“…polls is all we have to look forward to.” Shoot me now please.
i find it amazing how little pandering to the left obama has done. not because the left has any reason to expect anything from him, even some vote begging, but just becasue its basic,fundamental tactics, especially in a race where hes tied with his opponent. either he has some shred small shred of decency (dubious) or he genuinely, personally despises the left (obvious). Its also possible That he really believes his rightwing job killing, voter alienting policies are popular. T think its the latter. His ego is sociopathically huge.
We’ve all mused on these questions.
My take? Obama doesn’t really give a flying f*ck one way or the other. He’s a “made man” on Wall St. It’s really up to the 1% who “wins” this preposterous and stupid horse race. Maybe Zero knows the fix is in, and his buddies want the Barackstar over Decaf Mitt??
In any case, Zero is taken care of for LIFE – some at the expense of the 99% and some of it “trickling down” from the 1%.
I think Zero truly loathes and abhors the so-called “Left” with the passion of a MILLION white-hot suns. I think Barry Sotero is utterly *disgusted* that he has to ever even slightly *appear* to pander to us filthy stinking socialistic-oriented shitheaded hippies. It OFFENDS him to no end. Hence, my prediction: Zero will do a big fat ZIP, BUPKISS, NADA, ZERO to pander to the so-called “left.”
Barry *demeaned* himself by lying to us in 2008. He HATES us for having to do that. NEVER AGAIN. The end.
At least, in that sense, maybe Barry Sotero is being somewhat “honest” for a change. Certainly it’s pointless for him to pretend that he’s anything remotely like a “Democrat” anymore. What’s. The. Point?
I bet the Big egO gets off on Obamabots’ fawning. I can hear his thoughts: “How much can I screw ‘em and they keep come back for more? Hahahhaaa, disgusting peons.”
OK,mr Walker you mean tied in potential popular votes,but in electoral colleges Obama has more than Romney,unfortunately.
These 2 liars are in a close race in poll numbers,their goals are the same
nonetheless: cut medicare,cut social security,more wars, medium class destruction and so forth.
that’s funny
If Romney is elected with a compliant House and Senate, and really does implement Paul Ryan’s budget, he will do worse.
I’m *not* trying to convince anyone to vote for Obama (I’m not, but live in a very red state where it doesn’t matter), I’ve heard all the arguments pro and con, and I can understand the reasoning of those who think that Obama *must* be taken down, and taken down by the left to boot to drive the message home, and/or that the Democratic party must be demolished for a real alternative to emerge. But I also agree with Ian Welsh (who advocates that very course of action) that the results of that strategy will be a far-worse short-run result. I don’t believe in free lunches regarding that.
And I also recognize the truth to the counter-argument to that (echoing John Maynard Keynes) that the short-run is important too, for in the long run we’re all dead. I really fear that a short-run consequence is that large sections of the country (the parts that might not reliably vote for Karl Rove’s candidate) would be put under “emergency management” a la Michigan.
-stewartm