New Poll in Battleground States Finds Enthusiasm for “The One” Fading Badly – 12/13/11

Barack Obama as “The One”

Oh, for the halcyon days of “The One,” and “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” But, alas, Americans have come to see that what John McCain and many others warned about in 2008 was absolutely right – “The One” was not “ready to lead.”

A new poll of key battleground election states has some very alarming news for President Barack Obama. The wave of enthusiasm he rode into office in 2008 has disappeared, with far fewer people now self-identifying as Democrats, and more as Republicans:

USA TODAY: . . . Since the heady days of 2008, a new USA TODAY/Gallup Swing States Poll finds the number of voters who identify themselves as Democratic or Democratic-leaning in these key states has eroded, down by 4 percentage points, while the ranks of Republicans have climbed by 5 points.

Republican voters also are more attentive to the campaign, more enthusiastic about the election and more convinced that the outcome matters.

The contrasting conditions of the nation’s two major political parties — discouraged Democrats and resurgent Republicans — underscore how different Obama’s re-election campaign is from the contest four years ago.

Consider the math: In 2008, when Obama carried the swing states by 8 percentage points, Democrats there swamped Republicans in party identification by 11 points. Now, that partisan edge has tightened to a statistically insignificant 2 points. . . . Read More