Rasmussen 2012 Presidential Survey
Which Republican presidential candidate would be the strongest opponent against Barack Obama in the general election?
- Newt Gingrich 30%
- Mitt Romney 29%
- Ron Paul 8%
- Jon Huntsman 7%
- Michele Bachmann 5%
- Rick Perry 3%
- Rick Santorum 1%
- Not sure 16%
Among Republicans
- Newt Gingrich 49%
- Mitt Romney 24%
Among Independents
- Mitt Romney 32%
- Newt Gingrich 24%
The Hill/Pulse Opinion Research 2012 GOP Nomination Poll
Strongest Opponent in Next Election Against Barack Obama?
- Mitt Romney 37%
- Newt Gingrich 33%
Among Democrats
- Mitt Romney 42%
- Newt Gingrich 23%
Among Republicans
- Newt Gingrich 43%
- Mitt Romney 36%
The debate will be streamed live online here. It will also be rebroadcast on TV at 8pm EST on CSPAN.
And as always, have at it in the comments!
Rasmussen 2012 Presidential Survey
- Mitt Romney 45% [40%] (38%) {42%} [41%] (44%) {42%} [41%] (44%) {41%} [43%] (39%) {38%} [43%] {40%} [44%] (44%)
- Barack Obama 42% [42%] (44%) {43%} [42%] (42%) {43%} [43%] (42%) {44%} [40%] (43%) {46%} [42%] {45%} [42%] (44%)
Survey of 1,000 likely voters was conducted December 8-9, 2011. The margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points. Results from the poll conducted November 30 – December 1, 2011 are in square brackets. Results from the poll conducted November 21-22, 2011 are in parentheses. Results from the poll conducted November 9-10, 2011 are in curly brackets. Results from the poll conducted November 1-2, 2011 are in square brackets. Results from the poll conducted October 24-25, 2011 are in parentheses. Results from the poll conducted October 16-17, 2011 are in curly brackets. Results from the poll conducted October 8-9, 2011 are in square brackets. Results from the poll conducted September 28-29, 2011 are in parentheses. Results from the poll conducted September 18-19, 2011 are in curly brackets. Results from the poll conducted September 10-11, 2011 are in square brackets. Results from the poll conducted August 25-26, 2011 are in parentheses. Results from the polls conducted August 17-22, 2011 are in curly brackets. Results from the polls conducted between July 14-15, 2011 are in square brackets. Results from the poll conducted March 6-9, 2011 are in curly brackets. Results from the poll conducted January 3-4, 2011 are in square brackets. Results from the poll conducted November 24, 2009 are in parentheses.
Inside the numbers:
Romney and Obama are tied among voters not affiliated with either major political party.
Men prefer Romney 46% to 39%, while women are evenly divided between the two candidates. Obama continues to lead among voters under 40, while their elders favor Romney.
Romney leads Obama 52% to 36% among military veterans, but the candidates are tied among those who have not served in the military. The Republican holds a slight edge among both voters who have an immediate family member in the U.S. military and those who don’t.
–Data compilation and analysis courtesy of The Argo Journal
Race 4 20012′s Gingrich/Huntsman Lincoln – Douglas Debate open forum will go live at 3:30pm EST. The debate will be streamed live online here. It will also rebroadcast on TV at 8pm EST on CSPAN.
Gallup 2012 GOP Nomination Daily Tracking Poll
- Newt Gingrich 33% {33%} [35%] (37%) {34%} [36%] (37%)
- Mitt Romney 23% {23%} [23%] (23%) {25%} [23%] (22%)
- Ron Paul 8% {9%} [9%] (9%) {10%} [9%] (8%)
- Rick Perry 6% {6%} [6%] (6%) {5%} [6%] (7%)
- Michele Bachmann 6% {5%} [6%] (6%) {7%} [6%] (6%)
- Rick Santorum 3% {2%} [3%] (2%) {2%} [3%] (3%)
- Jon Huntsman 2% {2%} [2%] (1%) {1%} [1%] (1%)
Survey of at least 1,000 registered Republicans and Republican-leaning independents was conducted December 7-11, 2011. The margin of error is ± 3 percentage points. Results from the poll conducted December 6-10, 2011 are in curly brackets. Results from the poll conducted December 5-9, 2011 are in square brackets. Results from the poll conducted December 4-8, 2011 are in parentheses. Results from the poll conducted December 3-7, 2011 are in curly brackets. Results from the poll conducted December 2-6, 2011 are in square brackets. Results from the poll conducted December 1-5, 2011 are in parentheses.
–Data compilation and analysis courtesy of The Argo Journal
When Governor Romney infamously made his 10K bet on Saturday night, he obviously hopefully did not expect the kind of reaction it stirred, but that’s precisely the reason he is having to unexpectedly play catch-up at this late stage. It also reinforced my opinion about him that I posted here on Friday evening. He shouldn’t be losing this campaign, but his absence from the MSM up until this point has let them define him by his one unfortunate (and apparently planned) mishap. That it happened so late in the game is even more of a blunder, on his campaign’s part.
From Commentary:
It’s been that kind of week for Mitt Romney?. He put his foot firmly in his mouth by offering to bet Rick Perry? $10,000 with a flippancy that a less wealthy man might wager $10; the New York Times published a lengthy feature detailing the former Massachusetts governor’s somewhat schizophrenic approach to money. The piece, titled “Two Romneys: Wealthy Man, Thrifty Habits,” painted a portrait of a man of means who disdains the trappings of wealth and disliked spending money except when it came to acquiring expensive real estate. In one sense, it was a highly sympathetic profile of someone who was raised to believe in hard work and the value of a dollar but who was also oddly tone deaf to how his stingy ways can come across to others.
What’s sad is that Newt’s world is likely just as insulated as the one Romney has lived in since he was first elected governor, where your decisions are made by your advisors, and you lose that connection with everyday people outside of the photo opportunities provided on the campaign trail. For someone who has the desire and truly wants to be elected President of the United States, the large ego reaches the stratosphere, and if they are a frontrunner, they only hear of how great they are and that they are what the ordinary and average seek to lead them into the Promised Land.
The difference is that so far, Newt still hasn’t lost that ability to relate to his audience, and though one can make an argument of “Newt the narcissist” or “Newt looking out for only Newt,” one area where the former Speaker’s academic background turns into an advantage is that he still has a willingness to learn and engage his audience. Most successful professors know all too well that the best way to teach a collegiate level course is to engage your students, and open up the topics to discussion. Maybe this is one of the reasons Newt has risen to polling heights unreached by a GOP candidate this cycle (and in the 2007-08 campaign as well). He is engaging, whereas when Romney opens up, he appears more uncomfortable.
My return to the blogosphere really has nothing to do with whom I supported, campaigned for, and worked for in the last GOP primaries. I don’t want to rehash old debates about candidates who are no longer seeking active office. However, one of the lessons learned from my position in 2007 is that the campaign cannot let the MSM define them before the candidate can lay out their own narrative. For the record, Fred Thompson never owned a pair of Gucci shoes, and didn’t lazily ride around in a golf cart during the last go around. However, that’s what was reported, and since his campaign structure was not in place due to his late entry into the race, the people in charge of rebutting the message failed to refute that charge, and the media defined him as the “bored, lazy, and grumpy” Grandpa Fred. Fair or not, the other campaign’s pounced on it, and I even remember some of my colleagues here at this very website gleefully reporting it, but you know what? That’s politics.
This analogy is not meant to argue whether the report was truthful or not, nor is it meant to open up a now irrelevant discussion about Gucci shoes, or candidates who lost in 2007-08 and are not running this time, but as an example of how an perception, even an incorrect one, can be reported and become the story of a campaign.
I stated in my last post that Mitt Romney is losing to Mitt Romney, and though I wasn’t intending to be prophetic, maybe Prophet Oliver foresaw the coming “wagergate” (just kidding, Romney faithful). Even if Romney was correct in his facts concerning his wager… it was bad politics to make a bet worth roughly 1/3 of many American families’ annual income. It just, rightly or wrongly, reinforced the stereotype that Romney is completely out of touch with the needs of everyday people.
For Romney to be able to climb out of this crater sized hole he now finds himself in, it’s going to take more than his minions tearing down another upstart rival. He has to dig deep and find ways to connect to common, everyday people and define himself as a mere mortal.
“Pooping in a bucket?” Well… err… I guess it’s a start…
ARG Iowa 2012 GOP Caucus Survey
- Newt Gingrich 22% (27%) {8%} [8%] (12%)
- Ron Paul 17% (16%) {12%} [14%] (3%)
- Mitt Romney 17% (20%) {21%} [18%] (17%)
- Rick Perry 13% (5%) {14%} [2%]
- Michele Bachmann 7% (6%) {15%} [21%] (9%)
- Rick Santorum 7% (6%) {2%} [5%] (2%)
- Jon Huntsman 5% (3%) {1%} [3%] (0%)
- Buddy Roemer 0% (0%) {1%} [0%] (0%)
- Gary Johnson 0% (0%) {0%} [0%] (0%)
- Other 1% (0%) {1%} [2%]
- Undecided 12% (11%) {15%} [10%] (8%)
Survey 600 of likely Republican caucus-goers (505 Republicans and 95 independents) was conducted December 8-11, 2011. The margin of error is ± 4 percentage points. Results from the poll conducted November 17-23, 2011 are in parentheses. Results from the poll conducted September 22-27, 2011 are in curly brackets. Results from the poll conducted July 5-11, 2011 are in square brackets. Results from the poll conducted April 12-19, 2011 are in parentheses.
–Data compilation and analysis courtesy of The Argo Journal
Over two million more viewers tuned in Saturday night than watched the previous debate on CBS:
ABC News’ coverage of the Republican debate on Saturday night was the most-watched debate yet from the 2012 election season.
A total of 7.6 million viewers tuned in to watch Newt Gingrich defend his front-runner status in Iowa. That tops last month’s Republican debate on CBS, which delivered 5.5 million. The debate comes 24 days before primary voters pick their candidate in Iowa.
Hat-tip: Hot Air
UI Hawkeye Iowa 2012 GOP Caucus Survey
- Newt Gingrich 30% (7.7%)
- Mitt Romney 20% (27.0%)
- Ron Paul 11% (11.5%)
- Michele Bachmann 9% (3.9%)
- Rick Perry 8% (5.9%)
- Rick Santorum 5% (3.1%)
- Jon Huntsman 1% (1.2%)
Survey of 277 likely GOP caucus attendees was conducted November 30 – December 7, 2011. The margin of error is +/- 6 percentage points. Results from the poll conducted October 12-19, 2011 are in parentheses.
–Data compilation and analysis courtesy of The Argo Journal
From the Union Leader:
MANCHESTER — Leading state Tea Party activist and long-time “ax-the-tax” advocate Tom Thomson has chosen Mitt Romney as his presidential candidate.
Thomson, honorary chairman of the conservative Americans for Prosperity-New Hampshire advocacy group and co-organizer of three annual April 15 Tea Party AFP-Tea Party rallies at the New Hampshire State House, will formally endorse the former Massachusetts governor at 12:30 p.m. today at Madison Lumber Mill in West Ossipee.
A son of the anti-tax patriarch former Gov. Meldrim Thomson Jr., Thomson pre-dates the Tea Party as an outspoken fiscal conservative, but in recent years has become a Tea Party leader.
DES MOINES – The latest Republican presidential debate, a contentious one in the Iowa capital less than four weeks from the Iowa first-in-the-nation caucus on January 3, took place as the long-forming contest began to take some discernible shape across the nation.
As already reported, new GOP frontrunner Newt Gingrich, surging in virtually every state poll, east and west, north and south, was attacked pointedly by his rivals, as he has been attacked in the media, and by old friends and foes, over the past two weeks. So far, he has handled himself well, and remained apparently not seriously wounded. In fact, his surge continues in spite of the attacks. He is also experiencing some luck (a not inconsequential factor in almost every successful presidential campaign) in that the most noted miscue in the debate was not his, but by the previous frontrunner Mitt Romney when he casually bet Rick Perry $10,000 to prove an allegation the Texas governor made about him. One more time, Mr. Gingrich seemed to be judged the debate winner by the media. Only one more major debate with all the candidates remains until January 3.
Behind the setting of the debate at Des Moines’ Drake University campus, both the Romney and Gingrich campaigns were furiously playing catch-up in on-the-ground organization, an important factor for success in this caucus state. Mr. Romney was well-organized in 2007-08 in Iowa when he competed against and lost the caucus (to Mike Huckabee), and thus has had an easier time restarting his campaign at the precinct level in 2011-12. His is the only urban Des Moines headquarters, located on Ingersoll Avenue near the city center. All the other candidate offices are located in the city’s suburbs, including Urbandale where Mr. Gingrich has just set up shop. Based on my many presidential cycles covering Iowa, it would appear that both campaigns will be near-fully operational by caucus night. In Mr. Romney’s case, he has the funds, and seasoned supporters in place. Mr. Gingrich is benefiting from his intense surge here and seemingly everywhere else. The Romney campaign seems to have the advantage on paper, but it is difficult to measure the impact of Mr. Gingrich’s surge, especially if he can maintain it until January 3.
Nor should the well-organized campaigns of Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul be ignored. Rick Perry has a serious effort here, as well, but he has seemed to have lost much ground since his “bubble” appeared to burst during the debates following his late entry into the race. Rick Santorum, as perhaps the most conservative candidate (along with Mrs. Bachmann) in the race, also has a notable following here, and may well do better than the expectation created by his poll numbers. Mrs. Bachmann seems likely to do better than her poll numbers, as she pulls out all political stops to survive past Iowa.
Jon Huntsman has not competed here, and did not appear in Saturday’s debate. He is putting everything he has into New Hampshire where he admits he has to finish a strong third (behind Romney and Gingrich, but clearly ahead of Ron Paul). Herman Cain once enjoyed a surge of his own in Iowa, but has suspended his campaign, and is no longer making campaign appearances.
Iowa has a particular character that includes many evangelical voters, farmers, and urban conservatives. There are major urban liberal areas, including Des Moines, Iowa City (home of my graduate school alma mater, the University of Iowa), as well as many farm communities in northwestern Iowa, but the Republican voter in the Hawkeye state has become increasingly conservative since the 1970′s when its presidential caucus was inaugurated.
A libertarian populist (and isolationist) faction exists here, and this has fueled the Ron Paul campaign which did well in the past two straw polls and in the 2008 caucus itself. Mr. Paul could win here on January 3, but the voter configuration in Iowa that makes that possible exists almost nowhere else, and a Paul victory on January 3 would probably make Iowa much less relevant to the GOP presidential contest than Republican leaders would prefer. Media attention would then focus on who came in second, and who was ahead of whom.
The Iowa race is now engaged in full. TV and radio ads will flood the airwaves. Allegations will fly back and forth. In the unseeded corn fields of this midwestern state, all is quiet, preparing for the cold winter before the next planting season. In the political fields in Iowa, however, activity is increasing and the heat is rising.
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-Please visit Mr. Casselman’s personal site.
The latest round in a long simmering family feud:
Newt Gingrich’s openly lesbian half-sister, Candace Gingrich-Jones, says her brother is stuck in a ’90s time warp. And she’s not sure if he even believes all the anti-gay rhetoric or not.
“I really don’t see someone who, on a lot of issues, is very much different than the person who was Speaker of the House in the ’90s,”
Gingrich-Jones, an activist with the Human Rights Campaign Foundation who has clashed with her brother since the ’90s and is backing President Obama for re-election, slammed the caustic remarks Gingrich has made about gays, including his comments earlier in the year that gay marriage is a “temporary aberration.”
She’s also not sure if Gingrich is faking it all, pandering to the evangelical base in the Republican Party, or if he really believes the claims he makes on homosexuality and LGBT rights.
“He does not treat [my wife] Rebecca and myself any differently from my sister and her husband [at family gatherings],” Gingrich-Jones explained, also noting that, though Gingrich didn’t attend her wedding in Boston in 2009 — he was out of the country — he did send a gift.
“We got a shower gift as well,” she said. “For someone who has publicly and financially opposed marriage equality, he has not so far treated us any differently than a married couple…That’s the question that I ask myself, and many have asked me, ‘Does he believe the things he says or is he saying them as part of his political stands?’ Really, the bottom line is: I don’t like either of the possibilities there, and I don’t know what the actual answer is.”
Read the rest here.
From The Iowa Republican:
Seasoned political journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann offered up insights into the GOP horse race early Friday morning at a forum held at the Iowa Historical Building.
…
Despite the fact that New Hampshire’s primary has a history of repudiating Iowa’s pick, Halperin, editor-at-large and senior political analyst for TIME magazine, Time.com and MSNBC, and Heilemann, National Affairs Editor for New York magazine and also a senior political analyst at MSNBC, predict that whoever wins Iowa will get an important bump going into New Hampshire this time around.
While Romney has amassed a significant campaign war chest and could mount a war of attrition against the other GOP candidates, Halperin proposed how the momentum behind Gingrich and the organizational support of the Paul campaign could sink Romney’s shot at the White House by early February.
In a nutshell, Romney has to beat Gingrich here in Iowa. Should either Gingrich or Paul win Iowa, and Gingrich win New Hampshire, Romney would have to win in South Carolina and Florida, a make or break firewall for him, to continue to be viable by the time of the Nevada caucus on February 4. “There is only one scenario that Romney doesn’t win and that’s if one person wins three or four of the first four tests. It is imminently plausible that Gingrich could win. If Gingrich stumbles, then Romney is likely to succeed” said Heilemann.
…
The Obama team knows that holding on to the White House will be tough. Their strategy will be to redirect the vote next November from being a referendum on Obama’s first four years into a “choice election” that frames the contest as Obama being the “lesser of two evils” and the GOP challenger as an “unacceptable choice,” said Heilemann.
If Gingrich emerges as the nominee, the authors say may see a third-party centrist candidate come forward, someone like New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Americans Elect is a non-partisan direct nominating organization working to advance the prospect of a third-party presidential candidate.
Although many people have concerns that a third-party candidate would dilute the Republican votes and hand the election to Obama, Heilemann sees a third-party candidacy as a complicating factor for Obama at this time.
Team Romney has 12 days to turn this thing around before the holidays freeze the race until January 2nd. Iowa votes on January 3rd. It’s now or never for Romney.
Gallup 2012 GOP Nomination Daily Tracking Poll
- Newt Gingrich 33% [35%] (37%) {34%} [36%] (37%)
- Mitt Romney 23% [23%] (23%) {25%} [23%] (22%)
- Ron Paul 9% [9%] (9%) {10%} [9%] (8%)
- Rick Perry 6% [6%] (6%) {5%} [6%] (7%)
- Michele Bachmann 5% [6%] (6%) {7%} [6%] (6%)
- Jon Huntsman 2% [2%] (1%) {1%} [1%] (1%)
- Rick Santorum 2% [3%] (2%) {2%} [3%] (3%)
Survey of at least 1,000 registered Republicans and Republican-leaning independents was conducted December 6-10, 2011. The margin of error is ± 3 percentage points. Results from the poll conducted December 5-9, 2011 are in square brackets. Results from the poll conducted December 4-8, 2011 are in parentheses. Results from the poll conducted December 3-7, 2011 are in curly brackets. Results from the poll conducted December 2-6, 2011 are in square brackets. Results from the poll conducted December 1-5, 2011 are in parentheses.
–Data compilation and analysis courtesy of The Argo Journal
Gov. Mitt Romney’s domination of New Hampshire’s endorsements continues with the endorsement of Manchester Mayor and former state Senate president Ted Gastas.
“After spending 25 years in the private sector as a successful businessman, Mitt knows how to balance budgets, fix broken enterprises, and create jobs,” Gatsas said in a statement. “He is also the strongest Republican candidate with the best organization to take on President Obama in 2012.”
NBC News-Marist Florida 2012 Presidential Survey
REPUBLICAN PRIMARY
- Newt Gingrich 44% (6%)
- Mitt Romney 29% (31%)
- Ron Paul 8% (6%)
- Rick Perry 4% (8%)
- Michele Bachmann 3% (2%)
- Jon Huntsman 3% (2%)
- Rick Santorum 2% (1%)
- Undecided 8% (11%)
Who is your second choice for the Republican presidential primary in Florida?
- Mitt Romney 31%
- Newt Gingrich 24%
- Michele Bachmann 10%
- Rick Perry 9%
- Ron Paul 7%
- Rick Santorum 6%
- Jon Huntsman 4%
- Undecided 9%
REPUBLICAN PRIMARY
- Newt Gingrich 42% (6%)
- Mitt Romney 23% (26%)
- Ron Paul 9% (5%)
- Michele Bachmann 7% (5%)
- Rick Perry 7% (9%)
- Jon Huntsman 3% (1%)
- Rick Santorum 2% (2%)
- Undecided 8% (15%)
Who is your second choice for the Republican presidential primary in South Carolina?
- Mitt Romney 32%
- Newt Gingrich 21%
- Rick Perry 12%
- Michele Bachmann 10%
- Ron Paul 8%
- Rick Santorum 6%
- Jon Huntsman 2%
- Undecided 9%
Keach Hagey, of Politico, has written an eye-opening article about Newt Gingrich’s symbiotic relationship and history with the media. The article focuses primarily on Newt’s success in utilizing C-SPAN to advance his political pursuits but also extends to his general handling of the media:
“He has proven himself to be a very good debater in these presidential contests,” said Bob Walker, the former congressman who was one of Gingrich’s early comrades-in-arms and today advises Gingrich’s campaign. “I think at least part of it would go back to the days when he was debating on the House floor.”
Gingrich’s astute use of C-SPAN to project an energized and combative conservative caucus engaged in challenging the dominant Democratic majority – with him as its dynamic leader – showed an understanding of the political power of television and of messaging that was revolutionary for its day.
The cable network gave Gingrich both the conduit to reach a generation of conservative activists and a laboratory for figuring out how to dominate the news cycle — skills he has relied on in his debate performances this year and which will be crucial Saturday when Gingrich faces what’s likely to be a newly combative Mitt Romney at the ABC News/Des Moines Register debate in Iowa.
Behind his “elite media” bombast is a canny student of how to directly reach voters.
…But once he was speaker, Gingrich’s appetite for the kind of radical openness C-SPAN represented began to wane. Democrats accused him of “pulling up the ladder” that got him to where he was, and he rebuffed C-SPAN’s pleas for more access, as have the speakers that came after him.
But Gingrich’s appetite for media attention had not been curbed at all. As Ben Jones, the former “Dukes of Hazzard” star and Democratic congressman who ran against Gingrich in 1994 put it, “The most dangerous place in Washington, D.C .was to be standing between Newt Gingrich and a television camera. That’s probably been used by others at other times, but I said it first.”
That it has been used at so many other times to describe so many other lawmakers – it was being applied to Phil Gramm, then a Republican senator, back in 1994 when Jones was using it – is a testament to how fundamental the media is to wielding power in Washington. Gingrich was simply better at it than most.
“He understood that, if you compromised, there was no market value in that, in terms of going on television,” Clift said. “If you were bombastic and controversial, you were much more likely to be invited back.”
This information has numerous applications to the battle for the GOP nomination. While Newt’s detractors frequently point out his shortcomings and weaknesses – and, in all honesty, he has plenty – you can make the argument that Newt’s ability to massage and work the media to his advantage bears more relevance to the office of the President than do Romney’s undeniable skills as an executive and administrator. After all, the role of the President involves persuading, articulating, and influencing much more than, say, micromanaging the vast federal bureaucracy.
As many people have asserted recently and in years past, people tend to view as most effective the presidents with supreme powers of persuasion – Reagan, Lincoln, Kennedy, Truman, and both Roosevelts, to name a few – rather than those who governed more as administrators-in-chief – Bush 41, Ford, Carter, and Eisenhower for example.
I’m sure this will prompt much heated discussion and debate between the pro- and anti-Romney forces, but in the interests of intellectual honesty and the constraints of modern political reality, we ought to consider it.
Race42012′s ABC News/Iowa GOP presidential debate open forum will be going live at 8:30pm EST. I will actually be at the debate, so I trust that everyone will be on their best behavior.
Here’s a teaser:
InsiderAdvantage (R) Georgia 2012 GOP Primary Poll
- Newt Gingrich 54.1% {17%} [9%] (12%)
- Mitt Romney 12.4% {10%} [6%] (10%)
- Ron Paul 5.5% {5%} [5%] (1%)
- Michele Bachmann 3.8% {1%} [8%] (13%)
- Rick Perry 2.9% {9%} [24%]
- Rick Santorum 1.7%
- Jon Huntsman 1.5% {1%} [1%]
- Someone else 0.7% {4%} [4%] (4%)
- No opinion 17.4% {12%} [20%] (22%)
Survey of 516 likely Republican primary voters was conducted December 8, 2011. Results from the poll conducted October 3, 2011 are in curly brackets. Results from the poll conducted August 18, 2011 are in square brackets. Results from the poll conducted June 2, 2011 are in parentheses.
–Data compilation and analysis courtesy of The Argo Journal
PPP (D) Colorado Political Survey
If there was an election for Congress today, would you vote for the Democratic or Republican candidate from your district?
- Democratic candidate 46% [45%]
- Republican candidate 42% [40%]
Do you think same-sex marriage should be legal or illegal?
- Legal 47% [45%]
- Illegal 43% [45%]
Which of the following best describes your opinion on gay marriage: gay couples should be allowed to legally marry, or gay couples should be allowed to form civil unions but not legally marry, or there should be no legal recognition of a gay couple’s relationship?
- Gay couples should be allowed to legally marry 42% [40%] (40%)
- Gay couples should be allowed to form civil unions but not marry 34% [31%] (32%)
- There should be no legal recognition of a gay couple’s relationship 23% [27%] (25%)
In general, do you think that marijuana usage should be legal or illegal?
- Legal 49% [51%]
- Illegal 40% [38%]
Do you think that marijuana usage specifically for medical purposes should be legal or illegal?
- Legal 68%
- Illegal 25%
Survey of 793 Colorado voters was conducted December 1-4, 2011. The margin of error is +/- 3.5 percentage points. Party ID breakdown: 37% [41%] Democrat; 35% [33%] Republican; 28% [26%] Independent/Other. Political ideology: 32% [27%] Moderate; 25% [23%] Somewhat conservative; 18% [22%] Somewhat liberal; 14% [16%] Very conservative; 11% [13%] Very liberal. Results from the poll conducted August 4-7, 2011 are in square brackets. Results from the poll conducted February 4-6, 2011 are in parentheses.
–Data compilation and analysis courtesy of The Argo Journal
It’s time for that halftime speech by the PO’d coach whose team played an uninspiring first half.
I made a comment in a recent post that finally sparked my enthusiasm enough to return to say something about this year’s election, and you know what? That’s the whole problem.
I am not supporting any of these candidates at the moment because they are either uninspiring, or unelectable. It’s a sick joke on us. The whole “pull the lever because at least he’s not as bad as the other guy?” That is not the way to win people’s minds.
“Gosh… I love America.”
“Washington is broken, and I am the guy to fix it.”
“I love my wife of 40 years.”
Wake me up when it’s freaking over.
The reason I have not made one single post this election cycle up until this point is because this group might just be the most uninspiring, unelectable group of candidates in modern GOP history. There’s the guy that can’t top 30% no matter what, a bunch of members from the House of Representatives, and a governor that can’t remember what he was going to do yesterday, but doesn’t like “tha gays.”
Newt Gingrich is not winning this election. The truth is that Mitt Romney is losing it.
I will grant you this point. Mitt Romney might very well be the most qualified of our candidates, but that isn’t saying a whole lot. This group is a 3 ringed circus. Actually, it’s downright embarrassing that this ragtag bunch is the best the party can do.
When does that mean that you are the person to lead the party? It doesn’t. Look, Mitt Romney is qualified to be President. However, he’s not a messiah. He’s not a transformational leader, and he is uninspiring to a large majority of a base that is skeptical of anything being peddled by the likes of the establishment these days.
To win, he needs to make me eat my words.
He’s the safe pick, and in this day and age, the safe pick isn’t what it used to be to a huge portion of the GOP base. You can’t fall back on the “at least, he’s better than Obama” tagline to get people excited and turn out the base. John McCain was “better than Obama” too, but he lost.
I’ve basically turned into your average voter whose sick of the process. Somebody do something to make me want to take part. I don’t care about how long a candidate has been married. I could care less if Newt secretly wore J. Edgar Hoover’s pantyhose when he was a young congressman. I really don’t care. Somebody wake up this old warhorse. Say something to motivate me to care one iota about these candidates.
What these Washington elite fail to realize is that the “this guy is worse than the last guy, so don’t vote for him” is not the way to win back the White House, and that’s essentially what they are now trying to shove down people’s throats. Since the last election, Mitt Romney has been the “well, at least he’s better than the other guy” candidate, or the safe pick, but that’s not good enough to win over the skeptics.
I’m no fan of Gingrich, and I am not supporting anyone else, but tell me, the voter, why I should vote for Mitt Romney.
Things I don’t want to hear:
A. I don’t give two rats about his marriage, his faith, or the fact that he was a successful businessman.
They have no bearing on whether he truly has the philosophical reasoning behind the decisions he would make if he were President. Don’t kid yourself into thinking otherwise. George and Barbara were married for a lot of years too, and his was just your average one term, and ultimately unremarkable presidency.
“Washington is broken and I’m the guy best to fix it”
Nothing more than a hollow, and empty promise. A stale line of Bull dung given by every slimy politician that wants to be elected to office.
Strategic National (R) 2012 Michigan GOP Primary Poll
- Newt Gingrich 30.75% (10.2%)
- Mitt Romney 28.74% (24.4%)
- Ron Paul 7.47%
- Michele Bachmann 6.32%
- Jon Huntsman 4.02% (1.5%)
- Rick Santorum 3.16% (1.9%)
- Rick Perry 2.59%
- Undecided 16.95 (21.0%)
Survey of likely Republican primary voters was conducted December 8, 2011. The margin of error is +/- 5 percentage points. Party ID: 68% Republican; 32% Independent. Results from the poll conducted January 24-25, 2011 are in parentheses.
–Data compilation and analysis courtesy of The Argo Journal
Gallup Daily Tracking Poll, National Republican Primary
- Gingrich – 37% (34)
- Romney – 23% (25)
- Paul – 9% (10)
- Bachmann – 6% (7)
- Perry – 6% (5)
- Santorum – 2% (2)
- Huntsman – 1% (1)
Survey of more than 1,000 registered voters was conducted Dec 4-8.
Muhlenberg/Morning Call Pennsylvania 2012 Presidential Survey
- Barack Obama 45% (43%)
- Mitt Romney 41% (36%)
- Barack Obama 52%
- Newt Gingrich 35%
- Barack Obama 48%
- Rick Perry 30%
Do you approve or disapprove of the way President Obama has handled his job so far?
- Approve 45% (48%)
- Disapprove 50% (44%)
Do you feel that Barack Obama deserves to be re-elected?
- Yes 41% (40%)
- No 51% (45%)
Do you think President Obama’s policies have helped the economy, hurt the economy, or haven’t made a difference?
- Helped the economy 25%
- Hurt the economy 38%
- Made no difference 33%
Survey of 422 registered voters was conducted November 28 – December 7, 2011. The margin of error is +/- 5 percentage points. Party ID: 45% Democrat; 40% Republican; 11% Independent. Results from the poll conducted February 9-28, 2011 are in parentheses.
–Data compilation and analysis courtesy of The Argo Journal
