Fox News commentator Dick Morris recently said the media was “trying to” create a narrative that Barack Obama was ahead in his battle with presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney for the White House. Does Morris now include Fox News as among the media he suggests has editors and reporters creating a false narrative? This poll is even more lopsidded in favor of the new CNN poll, which finds Obama 7 points ahead as Romney bleeds independent overs and suffers from a higher unfavorability rating:
Mitt Romney has had a tough couple of weeks on the campaign trail — and it shows in the latest Fox News poll. After a barrage of campaign ads, negative news coverage of his overseas trip and ongoing talk about his tax returns, Romney’s favorable rating and standing in the trial ballot have declined. As a result, President Obama has opened his biggest lead since Romney became the presumptive Republican nominee.
The president would take 49 percent of the vote compared to Romney’s 40 percent in a head-to-head matchup if the election were held today, the poll found. Last month, Obama had a four percentage-point edge of 45 percent to 41 percent. This marks the second time this year the president has had a lead outside the poll’s margin of sampling error.
Obama’s advantage comes largely from increased support among independents, who now pick him over Romney by 11 percentage points. Some 30 percent of independents are undecided. Last month, Obama had a four-point edge among independents, while Romney had the advantage from April through early June.
There was also an uptick in support for Obama among women, blacks and Democrats.
Four voters in 10 say they are “extremely” interested in the race. Among just those voters, the candidates are tied at 48 percent each.
Fox News can blame Romney’s low numbers on Team Obama’s handiwork or negative news coverage but there is one thing they do not mention:
Mitt Romney is proving to be one of the most flawed, political-talent challenged candidates that any party has produced on the national level in several decades. The problem here is not only what is happening to Romney, it is how he is performing as a candidate.
Which ain’t stellar.
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.