Mitt, Obama neck-and-neck in new poll (Obama vs. Sarah 48 to 42% in this Rasmussen Poll)

The Deseret News / Rasmussen Reports ^ | July 20, 2009 | Lisa Riley Roche

[2ndDivisionVet]

If voters get to choose between Republican Mitt Romney and Democratic President Barack Obama in the 2012 election, a new national poll suggests the race would be too close to call.

Both Romney and Obama had the support of 45 percent of respondents to a new Rasmussen Reports poll released Monday.

The public opinion polling company asked 1,000 likely voters nationwide on July 18-19 whether they would vote for Romney or Obama if the 2012 presidential election were held today.

The telephone survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent.

Utah's top pollster, Dan Jones, said so early in the election cycle, such polls are "somewhat guesswork but it's still an indicator. I would be very surprised if we had an election and it would be that close."

Jones said the poll results say more about how Americans view Obama than a potential GOP challenger.

"It shows there are people who are discouraged with the (president's) economic package and especially with the direction America going," Jones said. Still, he said, the poll "will be very, very encouraging to the Romney people."

The results should give both Romney and the GOP a boost, said Kelly Patterson, the director of Brigham Young University's Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy.

"Gov. Romney can take a lot of heart from this because the Republican Party has gone through a very difficult stretch," Patterson said. "The fact that any Republican candidate is that close to Obama at this point is good news for the Republican Party."

And Romney, considered a "favorite son" candidate by Utahns because of his Mormon faith and leadership of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, may be in an especially good position to take advantage of the GOP's well-publicized struggles.(continued)

[2ndDivisionVet]

Remember, 2nd place is the first loser. Here they go trying to choose our nominee for us, again. Remind me how that worked out last time, will ya? I'm surprised Governor Palin did so well, especially since she's been the target of every Democrat, RINO, TV show, Hollywood actor, comic, presstitute and lefty blogger since Senator Mccain announced her as his running mate. When was the last time any of them attacked Governor Mitt Romney? What's the old WWII saying about "the flak being heaviest over the target" or whatnot?!

[Diogenesis]

James Carville (DNC): "It's a feel-good story, this Romney thing. Romney is an ascendant guy."

[muir_redwoods]

The more I live with Obozo the better losers like Mitt Romney sound. He pretty much sucks but I’d take him in a heartbeat today.

[Buck W.]

“Here they go trying to choose our nominee for us, again.”

In ‘08, we did a pretty good job ourselves of neutralizing the GOP candidate with the greatest chance of victory: RG.

[workerbee]

Here they go trying to choose our nominee for us, again.

Not a moment to waste. It's almost painful, the transparency.

[raptor29]

Except that Romney won’t sniff a chance in the Republican primaries, so why even run the poll..............?

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Meaningless poll designed to distact the people from the destruction the illegal Zero administration is causing.

[EGPWS]

I would think about now a dog could beat Obama.

[TheDon]

Sarah 2012

[Diogenesis]

You nailed it.

---

And any trained monkey could have done better than Mitt Brutus Romney, who got a "C" rating from CATO.
And that was BEFORE
Romney's Socialized medicine and coverup of the BIGdig kicked in. .
Note that the record also shows that Shapeshifter Romney also betrayed President Bush as Governor
(predicting what TeamROMNEY would do later in Election2008 to Gov. Palin, and every other GOP candidate).
Romney was against the conservative tax cuts.

Here are the facts from CATO.

"As U.S. real output grew 13 percent between 2002 and 2006, Massachusetts trailed at 9 percent.
* Manufacturing employment fell 7 percent nationwide those years, but sank 14 percent under Romney, placing Massachusetts 48th among the states.
* Between fall 2003 and autumn 2006, U.S. job growth averaged 5.4 percent, nearly three times Massachusetts' anemic 1.9 percent pace.
* While 8 million Americans over age 16 found work between 2002 and 2006, the number of employed Massachusetts residents actually declined by 8,500 during those years.
"Massachusetts was the only state to have failed to post any gain in its pool of employed residents," professors Sum and McLaughlin concluded.
In an April 2003 meeting with the Massachusetts congressional delegation in Washington, Romney failed to endorse President Bush's $726 billion tax-cut proposal."
[Cato Institute annual Fiscal Policy Report Card - America's Governors, 2004.]

[truthandlife]

Wow, Palin hasn’t even announced yet and she is only 6 points behind? Interesting.

Mitt ins 2012 is our Dole and McCain. The Dems would love to see him win the nomination because they know the Republicans voters stay home and Dems win big.

[Diogenesis]

Bob Dole would NEVER have backstabbed like Romney.

---

Late in October, The American Spectator's The Prowler revealed:
"Former Mitt Romney presidential campaign staffers, some of whom are currently working for Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin's bid for the White House,
have been involved in spreading anti-Palin spin to reporters, seeking to diminish her standing after the election.
'Sarah Palin is a lightweight, she won't be the first, not even the third, person people will think of when it comes to 2012,'
says one former Romney aide, now working for McCain-Palin.
'The only serious candidate ready to challenge to lead the Republican Party is Mitt Romney.
He's in charge on November 5th.'"
The Prowler added: "Some former Romney aides were behind the recent leaks to media, including CNN, that Governor Sarah Palin was a 'diva' and was going off message intentionally."
The Romney supporters in the McCain campaign had access to internal polling which indicated well in advance of the November 4 election that McCain had no chance to win.
So they began working to position their man Mitt for a run in 2012. Just two days after the election,The Palmetto Scoop reported:
"One of the first stories to hit the national airwaves was the claim of a major internal strife between close McCain aides and the folks handling his running mate Sarah Palin."
"I’m told by very good sources that this was indeed the case and that a rift had developed, but it was between Palin’s people and the staffers brought on from the failed presidential campaign of former Gov. Mitt Romney, not McCain aides."
"The sources said nearly 80 percent of Romney’s former staff was absorbed by McCain and these individuals were responsible for what amounts to a premeditated, last-minute sabotage of Palin."
These aides loyal to Romney inside the McCain campaign, said The Scoop, reportedly saw that Palin would be a serious contender for the Republican nomination in 2012 or 2016, which made her a threat to another presidential quest by Romney.
Erick Erickson, who organized Operation Leper, said:
"Here’s what I think: I think there are some staffers on the McCain campaign who seriously screwed up the roll out of Sarah Palin, to which Governor Palin herself objected.
These staffers are now out trying to finish her off thinking, as typical D.C. types do, that if they don’t do it to her, she’ll do it to them. They just never understood who Palin is or what she is about."
"Likewise, I do think there are some staffers and others who expect Mitt Romney to run again in 2012,
they decided McCain could not win, and decided to undermine Sarah Palin and her chances hoping it would ingratiate themselves with Mitt Romney."

---

"Who's the Palin Leaker from the McCain Campaign? (Mark Wallace, Romney pimp)
National Review Online The publication of a Vanity Fair profile of Sarah Palin
appears to have opened old wounds in the McCain campaign.
... the source of the “Diva” leak was Nicolle Wallace’s husband."

---

Who benefits most from Sanford meltdown? Californian (that's right) Mitt Romney

---

"Peeking Out From the McCain Wreckage: Mitt Romney"

"Someone's got to say it: IS MITT ROMNEY RESPONSIBLE FOR OBAMA'S VICTORY?"

"Vanity: Team Romney Sabotaged Palin and Continuing to Do So?"

"Romney Supporters Trashing Palin"

"Romney advisors sniping at Palin?"

[Al B.]

This article conveniently leaves out a little gem from the Rasmussen report (earlier thread on FR) that's the elephant in the room for the GOP:

32% of Republicans polled said that if Palin is not the nominee, she should run as an independent.

Beltway GOP, you've got a problem.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Huh? Am I having an attack of oldtimer’s disease? Who is RG?

[svcw]

Not this again.

Romney will never be the Republican nominee.

He is a liberal, look at his political record.

[svcw]

Maybe Robert Godfrey?

[Retired Greyhound]

RG? Retired Greyhound?

Well I certainly would have done better than McCain, but I was pretty busy last year.

[Red_Devil 232]

Mitt and Obambi - two losers with health-care plans!

We are watching Mitt's fall apart in Mass. right now!

Obambi's plan must (God I Pray) fail to get out of Congress!

[Swing_Thought]

Tweedledee vs Tweedledum. Who cares? Not me.

[Retired Greyhound]

Palin would be my choice. She was the only thing good about 2008, but I don’t think she or Romney will be good POTUS candidates.

Will see if Jindal can pull it together, but I’m not liking the crop of GOP potential candidates at the moment.

Definitley no Reagans out there that I can see, unless Fred can muster up some energy somehow.

[duckman]

No Mitt no Huck, no Newt, no Bush’s.

[euram]

Without much effort, and with all the 24/7 carpet bombing of her, Sarah Palin is only a few points behind 0bama? I’d say that’s pretty good. She may even be even with him, Margin of Error 3 points would give her 45 and him 45. Another way of looking at it.

Once Palin is free to travel, speak her mind, and write, her numbers will climb. You can bet that her book will hit #1 on the best sellers list as well.

Come 2012, Romney, Huckabee, Pawlenty, Gingrich, Daniels, whoever, won’t even be speedbumps in Palin’s way. Speedbumps implying slowing something down, what they will be is roadkill on the Palin Highway.

[workerbee]

IYO, why Jindal over Palin? Is it for substitive reasons or do you feel Palin has been “damaged” a la Quayle, Gingrich, etc. for a general election? Just curious.

[Buck W.]

Rudy G.

[Buck W.]

Ha! No, Rudy G., although I bet you would have done better than McCain.

[Nosterrex]

Whoever decides to run for president on the GOP side will have to be someone with a wealth of economic leadership. The economy is going to be the number one issue for the next couple of years. Of course, foreign affair could take central stage if some catastrophe occurs. I can imagine some previous GITMO detainee exploding a dirty bomb in New York City. That would definitely change the direction of the race.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Hahahahaha! Yeah, further left than McCain, that’s where we should have gone! Oh, My Lord, and you’re serious, too, aren’t you? Why even have a Republican Party? Just merge them back into the Democrat-Republican Party circa 1810. Or we could call them the Federalist Party, for the added touch of irony!!

[Buck W.]

Your posts are entertaining, and will do nothing to influence the GOP candidate in ‘12.

Support your candidate with passion in the primaries, don’t defame the other GOP candidates, and commit to support the GOP ticket in the general. That’s all you’ve got to do.

[AFPhys]

This is very early for the sitting president to be losing to any named candidate.

[Buck W.]

That’s a strange belief that many here have. On national security and economics, RG was among the most conservative in the field. On social issues, he committed to the appointment of Scalia-like SC justices, which is the extent of the president’s influence in those matters.

Yes, he was conservative.

[Buck W.]

Yes—the wheels may be coming off.

[Retired Greyhound]

Substance. I don’t worry about the “damaged” thing. Nobody was more maligned than GWB in 2004, and yet, he was able to win.

But I have been routinely disappointed by Sarah’s grasp of some issues thus far. Maybe that will change in a few years. She doesn’t seem to me to be a Reagan type intellectual. Yet.

[Retired Greyhound]

Are you suggesting that Rudy would have been the best candidate for the general?

[2ndDivisionVet]

Anyone can change positions when they’re running for president (See Gov. Willard “Mitt” Romney) but actions speak louder than words. Mayor Giuliani was tough on crime and terrorism. That’s about the beginning and ending of his so-called “conservatism” FRiend. Would he make a good Homeland Security secretary, FEMA director or Drug Czar? Sure. Do I want him in the Oval Office? Not on your life! President Clinton is to the right of Hizzoner on many issues. Rudy is pro-abortion, pro-homosexual marriage, for open borders, etc. Senator McCain was bad enough!

[Buck W.]

Yes.

[Buck W.]

We disagree.

[Clemenza]

Rudy is a known liar and control freak who would have been a disaster as President. His way of thinking is so foreign to American conservatism that, intellectually, he is more of a moderate "Euroconservative" without the religious trappings.

Thankfully, that has-been ran one of the worst campaigns for national office ever.

[Buck W.]

“Rudy is a known liar and control freak who would have been a disaster as President.”

Liar? Hardly. Control Freak? Sure hope so.
He would have been a fine president. May still be...

[Nervous Tick]

>> commit to support the GOP ticket

No can do, as long as they prove themselves unworthy of support.

Tell you what though, I’ll support to commit them. Most of them could use some time in an asylum to “discover themselves”.

[Clemenza]

The pro-Gay, pro-illegal, pro-gun control lapsed Catholic greaseball will be President the day Rosie O'Donnell does a spread in Maxim. Maybe he can run for the Dem nomination in 2012, but he is making too much money working for a law firm based in Houston.

Law and Order Eurofascism mixed with social liberalism has no place in American conservatism.

[Still Thinking]

Romney will never be the Republican nominee. He is a liberal, look at his political record.

If that worked we wouldn't have got stuck with McLame.

[svcw]

No argument here.

[Clintonfatigued]

This is encouraging, but Mitt Romney is an uninspiring choice.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Why doesn’t Slick Willard just try to buy the Democrat party nomination instead ? It’d be the first honest thing he’s done in his life.

[Buck W.]

“No can do...”

Do you have your “Obama ‘12” bumper sticker on?

[justiceseeker93]

If O continues to self-destruct, any GOP candidate would beat him soundly in the next election, provided it is reasonably fair.

[svcw]

That would be interesting but it didn’t work with the Republican nomination.

[Buck W.]

“Catholic greaseball”

Ah, so you’re an Italian Catholic hater. Should have known—the bigotry is obvious.

[Clemenza]

I am half-Italian and, like Rudy, I am an ex-Catholic. Unlike Giussolini, however, I don’t lie about my religion.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Yeah, but there's a difference. His Socialist bonafides are solid. He eliminated the GOP as an opposition party in MA. I mean, let's face it, he's the most successful Democrat Governor MA ever had (and the worst Republican one ever). Why wouldn't the rodents not want this jewel ?