In a general-election trial heat in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll he runs evenly with Barack Obama among all Americans, and numerically outpoints him, 49-46 percent, among registered voters — not a statistically significant lead, given sampling error, but a clear reflection of Obama’s vulnerability to a well-positioned challenger. – Poll: Romney, Palin See Boost; Obama Vulnerable
I’ve been offline due to an Cox Communications outage, so let’s get crackin’…
Mitt Romney is poised to take advantage of bad economic news with Pres. Obama fighting to renew his brand at a time when “hope and change” both ring hollow. There’s little hope out there economically and whatever “change” candidate Obama offered didn’t match what was needed, as voters see it today.
Romney is at 22%, with Palin at 17%, but we all know that if you turn Romney on the general populace his chances are a lot better than hers.
Romney, though, is the only Republican to run that well; Obama leads all other potential opponents tested in this poll — Palin, Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty, Michele Bachmann and Jon Huntsman. Palin fares worst, trailing Obama by 17 points among all adults, 15 points among registered voters.
Indeed, despite advancing in GOP primary preference, Palin faces daunting challenges. Sixty-four percent of Americans say they definitely will not vote for her for president, a new high. Sixty-three percent describe her as unqualified for the job, below its peak but still a substantial majority. Even in her own party, among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, 41 percent rule out voting for her and 39 percent see her as unqualified.
Sarah Palin remains unelectable, though her fans are still hoping she can turn it around.
That won’t happen with things like her Fox News channel performance this past Sunday on her Paul Revere gaffe. Palin’s humility index is non-existent.
Meanwhile, her fans on Twitter keep tweeting me to apologize because I found her Revere story word salad silly. I hope they’re not holding their breath.
As one Dem insider told me several months ago, Barack Obama’s never run against a “competent” Republican. With Romney side-stepping Ryan’s Medicare scheme debacle, while standing up to say climate change is real, he’s showing maturity going into 2012 that was non-existent in ’08.
It’s a long way out, but for Republicans who usually reward front-runners and the last runner-up, Romney’s in a very good place right now.
Among Independents in the new poll, 57% disapprove of Obama’s job performance.
TM,
your point about never running against a competent Republican is well taken. But he did beat the very powerful Clinton “machine” for the nomination. And lets face it Bill and Hillary (with the exception of one election early in WJC career) won every election they ever ran in. So Pres Obama should be given his due on winning a tough campaign.
The Pres put himself in this box regarding the economy. He did not listen to, nor did he ever seem to give any credence to those folks in the Dem Party or the Liberal economists such as Krugman, Roubini, et al who were pleading with him to be more aggressive on the stimuls – lessen the reliance on tax cuts, break up too big to fail, public option /single payer now not later. use Medicare buying power to force drug prices down, or allow drug reimportation., don’t extend the Bush tax cuts, prolonging the Wars,the forclosure crisis has not been solved. We could go on. But all his major accomplishments in those areas are Republican plans
He basically sought bipartisanship to pass a Republican agenda when the problems were screaming for more progressive / traditional Democratic solutions . Yes there were some very major accomplishments such as saving the auto industry, reforming college loans but in economic terms, he refused, or was unable/did not want to try to change the economic framing and solutions. The banksters were never perp walked-which is what many deserve- and would have demonstrated to the middle class that he was with them. But he didn’t.He made his bed.
He now has to pivot strongly , if he can, and become more progressive, but it will be hard to do when the House is in Repub hands. It is more incumbant than ever that medicare. medicaid and soc sec not be touched and he has to fight, which is something he can’t seem to do.He has to rely on to some degree on the crazies on the right to do some of his work for him.
This notion that he believes he needs to appear bi partisan is just such crap. Repub Presidents never seem to feel that pressure. Indeed some one should tell the Pres that politics is all about partisanship.
The point remains that Obama has never run against a tough Republican.
Also, tough as the Clinton camapaign was, they got a late start in Iowa, that i think gave Mr. Obama enough momentum to capture the nomination. Had Mrs. Clinton worked the ground game more in Iowa, enough to have taken more support from Edwards, she would have won the nomination.
You think Romney is a tough Republican? Assuming Romney can get past the people in the GOP who hate his guts and trust him even less the Obama campaign will have a treasure trove of video clips they can use to beat him over the head with. Go to YouTube type in Mitt Romney and take a gander at the slew of videos random people have put together showing all of good old Mitt’s flip-flops over the years! That guy doesn’t have a sincere bone is his body and it shows! The same people who don’t think Obama can beat Romney are the same people who didn’t think he could beat the Clinton’s or McCain/Palin. You people keep putting roadblocks in this President’s path and he keeps plowing right over them! Taylor your latest theory about Obama Romney vulnerability is just the latest example of this. As for Romney’s vaunted business acumen, how do you think people are going to react when they realize this guy was basically a corporate raider who bought up companies broke them up into pieces and sold them off at a huge profit firing thousands of people along the way! Back to your tough Republican comment, you might not consider John McCain, a genuine war hero who spent 5 years being tortured in a North Vietnamese POW camp tough but most People out there do!
He has to fight, but, I think that the senate democrats should do some of the fighting. One of the retiring senators should step into Paul Ryan’s role and put out a democratic budget blueprint from which to negotiate. I think that it would be helpful in negotiations and would be a point on which to rally support.
He had a lot of help to defeat Hillary. Now I’m ready for him to lose. Maybe a future President Clinton will put him on the Supreme Court.
“Sarah Palin remains unelectable, though her fans are still hoping she can turn it around.”
And you base this on what??? Polls taken in 2011 and based on the Wash DC/New York media echo chamber dominated by Dems and faux Repubs who get invited to Liberal talking head shows. To be sure, you are a Liberal, so your perspective is biased and not unexpected. But at one time, you were open minded, and capable of seeing charisma, talent and power that your Liberals cohorts could not see. Now you are pushing that calicified line based on polls dominated by media Liberals. Btw, there is enough evidence to suggest that Revere did “warn” the British about something, so there is a version other than the “Liberal” anti-Palin version, just like she punked Liberals who thought she gaffe when she said “Party Like 1773″.
The fact of the matter is Palin Haters should pay attention to what Gov Dean had to say over the weekend that she could beat Obama, no matter what these rigged polls say in 2011. His point was that anyone who wins the Repub nomination would have been vetted by enough moderates to perhaps make that person palatable to independents that wouldn’t be open to supporting that person today. In other words, he is suggesting that if Gov Palin runs and wins the Repub nomination, she presumably would have demonstated enough gravitas to earn a second look from people who have been overwhelmed by the Obamedia caricature of her. Moreover, there is a movie on the way which presumbly tells a story the country never heard, especially all her accomplishments as Gov over 18 months. Even Liberals at CBS, ABC and Huff Post were opened minded enough to suggest this movie could be a game changer. Certainly not for the 20% – 40% who wouldn’t vote for here no matter what. The other 60% – 80% is a large enough base to work from if the movie is compelling enough and her subsequent performance demonstrate that she is up to the tasks.
The liberal talking point of “She Cannot Get Elected” is based on Liberal dominated media polls, mostly with Dem leaning samples. Liberals should be careful what they wish for.
No, I base it on Sarah Palin’s performances.
I don’t care what the media says, which should have been evident from 2009 through the midterms.
NO ONE on the Left, middle or Right made the case for Palin’s power better than I did.
Unfortunately, she’s proven herself to be a person who is not serious about her role since 2010.
If Romney was acting like he did in ’08 I’d say she could take him.
But I do not believe, given Sarah Palin’s performances, that she can make an economic case that will have the general election voter convinced she can handle the challenges in our economy.
Mitt won’t endorse the Ryan budget scheme, Sarah has, proving she’s absolutely clueless on just how reckless that type of austerity would be as our economy slides.
She is unelectable because she is stupid. A hillbilly.
It’s a long way to the nomination and Romney may never get there, but if he does, I could see a Romney/Cain ticket if Cain does not embarrass himself. This is balance in more ways than one. Moreover, it perfectly reflects the “natural order” of things as Republicans perceive it.:-)
After all this is the party that gave us Michael Steel to countervail Barak Obama. Obama/Biden vs. Romney/Cain?
That’s definitely one possibility, Ramsgate. He’s actually rising in the polls.
One person, however, that’s not being given enough credit is Michele Bachmann, who just took on Ed Rollins. She could actually win Iowa, which would throw everything re: the veep spot into a tailspin.
Agreed about it being far out, but Romney’s made some important statements, ie, on climate & treading carefully on Ryan’s policy debacle. He’s a much smarter & less desperate candidate today.
I agree about watching Bachmann Taylor. There was a time when Obama was in the same place as Bachmann with regard to general elect-ability. She is likely looking at veep and Cain is not. That could make the difference in the end.
I would love for you to point to a time when the now President Obama was ever crazy and stupid!
It depends what the electorate wants. Who knows 2012 might be the boring candidate’s year – good for Romney. Excitement someone else.