Posted on 08/25/2011 12:43:08 PM PDT by Sarabaracuda
President Obama continues to lead all named Republicans in early polling on the 2012 race for the White House, but the numbers suggest a competitive race may be possible.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows the President earning 43% of the vote if Texas Governor Rick Perry is the GOP nominee. Perry attracts support from 40%. Ten percent (10%) say theyd prefer some other candidate while seven percent (7%) are not sure.
If Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is the GOP candidate, the president leads 43% to 39%. In that match-up, 12% would prefer some other candidate and seven percent (7%) are not sure.
With former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney as his opponent, the president leads 46% to 38%. In an Obama-Romney contest, eight percent (8%) would look for a third party option while nine percent (9%) are not sure. (To see question wording, click here.)
(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.
The match-up surveys of 1,000 Likely Voters were conducted August 17-22, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error for the surveys is +/- 3% with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
Perry leads the race for the GOP nomination by double digits. However, its worth noting that the 2008 nominee, John McCain, never led in national polling until the end of December in 2007. The frontrunner for the nomination often polls better than other candidates in match-ups against an incumbent president.
Data released earlier shows the President leading Congressman Ron Paul by a single point and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin by double digits.
The previous round of match-ups showed the president leading Perry by five and Bachmann by seven. At that time, Romney held a one-point lead over Obama.
Perry leads Obama by 69 percentage points among Republicans. Bachmann leads by 61 among GOP voters and Romney by 59. The president leads all three among unaffiliated voters. However, the presidents support among unaffiliateds ranges from 41% to 44% and a quarter of unaffiliateds remain either undecided or interested in a third party option.
A Generic Republican leads the president by five percentage points. One of the best measures of a presidents prospects for re-election is his Job Approval rating. Recently, the presidents approval has held steady in the low-to-mid 40s, a sign of potential vulnerability. However, it is very early in the election cycle and there is plenty of time for the presidents numbers to improve (or possibly to decline). In either case, as election day approaches, the presidents share of the vote is likely to be very close to his Job Approval rating.
Match-ups for each candidate were conducted on separate nights as part of the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll.
It’s likely voters per the article, but I agree that it does not bode well for Obama, since one-fourth or one-third of the electorate has still not heard of Perry.
You get it.
I hope the Democrats decide to run Rick Perry against Obama during the primaries. This way they can have a true progressive whom represents their views.
I actually wrote a paper about this in undergrad, and it's a common misconception.
Let me explain why. Carter and Reagan were basically even in the polls until the weekend before election day. On Sunday night, Carter's pollster, Patrick Caddell, was polling Americans and found that Reagan had grabbed 5 percentage points from Carter, giving him a 5 point lead in the polls. On Monday afternoon and evening, Carter's pollster polled the public again, and found that Carter had lost ANOTHER 5 points to Reagan, and that Reagan's lead over Carter was approximately 10 points on election day. Carter ended up losing the election by 9.75 points. So while the major news organization polls were inaccurate because they stopped polling on Saturday night (3 days before the election), all the relevant polling showed Reagan smashing Carter on election day, which is exactly what happened. It's amazing to think that you can have a 10 point swing in the span of basically 30 hours, but that is exactly what happened. What contributed to this 10-point swing was the news media intently covering the hostage situation again, and soft Democrats frustrated with Carter ended up switching their support to Reagan. What resulted was an electoral landslide.
*** I am thrilled that Perry is losing too. I cant wait for Sarah to announce. People will be saying, Perry who? ***
I have not talked to a single soul who isn’t a solid Republican who has said they would vote for Palin.
In 2004, I was disgusted with Bush, but couldn’t possibly vote for Kerry. In 2012, if Palin is the nominee, you’ll get that effect in reverse for Obama.
FDR seriously screwed up this country with the New Deal. He, not Johnson, Nixon, Carter or Obama, is the one ultimately responsible for our massive Federal Debt burden. The American people rewarded him with 4 Presidential victories.
Anytime an incumbent polls under 50%, it’s bad news(for the incumbent).
The Palinistas cheer any poll that shows Obammy beating any non-Palin candidate, yet refuse to believe the CONSISTENT polls showing Palin down 15 to 20 pts.
Wait a sec, regardless of who is going down...how can ALL of the Republican candidates be losing to Obama, when at the end of the survey he still loses to the “generic” Republican?
They're still waiting for their free Oboma money. He said he was going to steal it from other people and give it to them.
Idiot.
Rick Perry does well since he steals so many of the far left votes from Obama.
You are serious???
10 people who have enough time on their hands to show up for this, that you have NO idea of their background, circumstance etc and you’re worried that they went 6-4 for Obama.
Brother I got some land down in Florida I’d like to visit with you about.
Sarah Palin out for two-fifths of Republicans, poll finds
Anything less than 50% for an incumbent is very bad news. It suggests strongly that he will lose, unless the Republicans screw up.
Which, of course, they will be happy to do unless someone competent manages to take it out of the hands of the usual suspects. Someone like Sarah Palin.
On the other hand, I don’t support Perry, but 40% isn’t too bad for an opposition candidate with several other contenders still in the race.
Either the actual Republican is disliked, or not well known enough yet. For Perry its the latter, for Romney, the former, and for Bachmann, probably the former, unfortunately.
I don't for one second believe any poll that gives ZERO more than 10% against ANY Republican.
The polls are a waste of time & energy.
Sigh, another reactionary vulgar reactionary Perry thug representing the thug candidate.
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