A new Washington Post/ABC News poll finds presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s numbers have largely stalled — and his negatives have risen:
Although 40 percent of voters now say they hold a favorable opinion of the former Massachusetts governor — virtually unchanged from May — those holding negative views of him ticked higher in the new survey, from 45 percent to 49 percent
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What this means: the Democrats’ nearly mocking tone when they discuss Romney will have an audience that partially agrees. And late night comedians will continue to have a field day. But there are more profound details here as well:
Meanwhile, President Obama remained in positive territory on that measure, with 53 percent of voters reporting favorable opinions of him. Only 43 percent say they feel unfavorably toward him.
Polls have generally shown a tight contest despite Obama’s consistent edge in popularity.
But a Post survey concluded just as Romney was finishing the GOP primaries showed him gaining ground on the president. His favorability ranking rose to a career high of 41 percent, while for the first time he matched Obama among detractors, with 45 percent viewing each unfavorably.
Meanwhile, President Obama remained in positive territory on that measure, with 53 percent of voters reporting favorable opinions of him. Only 43 percent say they feel unfavorably toward him.
Polls have generally shown a tight contest despite Obama’s consistent edge in popularity.
But a Post survey concluded just as Romney was finishing the GOP primaries showed him gaining ground on the president. His favorability ranking rose to a career high of 41 percent, while for the first time he matched Obama among detractors, with 45 percent viewing each unfavorably.
Or via some kind of “hail Mary” Vice Presidential pick.
Heck, with his numbers trending this way, he may ask Mary herself...MORE:
Critically, independent voters now hold their favorable views of Obama more strongly than they do of Romney. More independents view Obama favorably than unfavorably, by a margin of 53 percent to 40 percent. Their opinions of Romney were nearly reversed, with 37 percent viewing him favorably and 50 percent unfavorably.
I’ve long contended here that a)independent votes are not monolithic and b)Romney is turning off a key chunk of independent voters who are not fans of the Tea Party movement or the GOP’s dominant talk radio political culture. These are independents who want to see politicians and parties aggregate interests, and are sick of hearing the word “librrul” said with sneer, and who are annoyed with GOPers talk about the “Democrat Party” because the know Democrats do not want the DEMOCRATIC Party referred to that way. Could Romney win without these voters? Possibly. Could he govern without them? Possibly — but he’ll have a far smaller and weaker safety net the second he runs into major trouble.
And although Republicans may be warming to Romney — 83 percent feel positively toward him, his highest measure — only 41 percent feel “strongly favorably” toward him. Meanwhile, 61 percent of Democrats feel strongly favorably toward their candidate, with 84 percent holding overall positive impressions.
Still the poll doesn’t address another factor: the number of Republicans who’d vote for an avocado if it was running at the head of the Republican ticket against Barack Obama. Any “enthusiasm gap” has to be adjusted for that.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.