One Year Out: New Survey of 12 Electoral Battleground States has Terrifying Numbers for President Obama – 11/4/11
A new USA Today/Gallup survey of 12 likely battleground states in the 2012 Presidential Election show that President Obama has an “uphill climb” to re-election. Here are some of the key findings from the survey of voters in 12 states: NV, CO, NM, IA, WI, MI, OH, PA, NH, VA, NC, FL.
USA TODAY: . . . Among the findings of the USA TODAY/Gallup Swing States Poll:
• By nearly 4 to 1, those surveyed aren’t satisfied with the way things are going in the United States. That could signal trouble for incumbents in general and the president in particular as voters increasingly hold him responsible for the country’s economic troubles.
• By 60% to 37%, those in swing states say they and their families aren’t better off than they were three years ago — a version of the question Republican challenger Ronald Reagan posed to devastating effect against Democratic President Jimmy Carter in 1980.
Residents in swing states are more likely than those elsewhere to say their families’ lives have taken a negative turn. Americans in other states also are dispirited, but not to the same degree: 44% say they’re better off; 54% say they aren’t.
• By more than 2 to 1, Republicans in swing states are more likely than Democrats to say they are “extremely enthusiastic” about voting for president next year — an important test of whether supporters will be willing to volunteer their time, contribute money and vote.
The enthusiasm gap between Republicans and Democrats and the intense opposition to Obama among Republicans loom as major challenges for the president.
“The intensity of that job-approval rating … really changes the composition of who actually votes in this election,” Romney pollster Neil Newhouse said Wednesday at a breakfast with reporters hosted by The Christian Science Monitor. “The energy behind conservatives, behind the anti-Obama sentiment — that changes the calculus in some of these individual states.”
He predicts that disappointment with Obama’s presidency will make it harder for Democrats to generate high turnout among young people, Hispanics and others whose support fueled his 2008 victory. . . . Read More
