The editors of the Gallup Pull have taken a long, hard look at the Republican’s new Presidential nominee Mitt Romney and find a mixed bag as he prepares to deliver what many predict will be the speech of his political life at the Republican convention tonight in Tampa. Two key findings: his likability is up somewhat but it still could be a factor that could cost him the election — which makes his speech even more important.
Soon-to-be-Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is about as well-liked as he has been during the presidential campaign, with 48% of Americans holding a favorable view of him and 46% an unfavorable view. His image was only slightly more positive in May — about the time he clinched the Republican nomination. As recently as mid-July, significantly more Americans viewed him unfavorably than favorably.
Romney’s improved image could benefit him as he takes the stage at the Republican National Convention Thursday night. However, Romney still gets a lower favorability rating than President Barack Obama, 53% to 48%, in the latest USA Today/Gallup poll, conducted Aug. 20-22. While this gap is down from his double-digit favorability deficits against Obama at times over the past year, any deficit in favorability could be an obstacle to victory for Romney, and thus will be important for him to try to rectify via this week’s convention or during the fall campaign.
Some other findings:
Gallup’s bottom line:
As Romney prepares to make his GOP presidential nomination acceptance speech Thursday night at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, a review of the public’s attitudes toward the former Massachusetts governor demonstrates a wide range of strengths and weaknesses that he takes into the convention phase of the campaign. Romney clearly comes up short against Obama in terms of his personal image, including views of the two candidates’ “likability” and overall favorable ratings. On the other hand, Romney has a clear edge as the candidate better able to handle the economy — Americans’ consensus choice as the most important problem facing the country.
All in all, despite these differences, the two candidates headed into the conventions neck-and-neck in Gallup’s trial heat tracking. According to historical patterns, Romney can expect to see a bounce from his convention this week, as should Obama from his convention next week. Thus, the key statistic will be the two candidates’ standing when the dust from the conventions settles in mid-September.
In other words: a closely fought race. And if independent voters are looking upon all the partisan anger and what several independent voters in several states have characterized to me as “political craziness,” in the words of the late Al Jolson and the late Ronald Reagan: “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
Here’s Pollster’s graph showing the results of 247 shows. It shows Romney on the ascent and Obama on the descent:
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.