Posted on 05/15/2012 9:49:54 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The latest CBS News/New York Times poll shows President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in a dead heat in the race for the White House.
Given that Obama has had a relatively good week and Romney something of a bad one, this poll is a real shocker. Asked for whom they would vote were the election held today, 46 percent of the nearly 600 registered voters surveyed said Romney while 43 percent said Obama. Given that the error margin is plus or minus four points, it looks like the race is all tied up.
Actually, Romney may be in better shape than the poll suggests. The same survey conducted in April showed each man with 46 percent of the vote while the polls from March and February showed the president ahead.
What is particularly interesting is this is a poll of registered voters, meaning it's a survey representing the entire universe of those who may cast ballots in the upcoming election. Thanks to things like "motor voter," there are far more Democrats in the pool of registered voters than Republicans and, unlike surveys of so-called "likely voters," many of them may not bother to vote. It is not too much of an inference, therefore, to think that Obama may be losing the country—and that's because he has failed to get a handle on the nation's economic troubles.
Unemployment is down from where it had been under Obama, to 8.1 percent, but that's not because the economy is creating jobs. It's because, as this simple analysis shows, large numbers of people have simply stopped looking for work. "In April," wrote Tyler Durden on Zerohedge.com, "the number of people not in the labor force rose by a whopping 522,000 from 87,897,000 to 88,419,000," which he says is the highest number ever recorded. The labor force participation rate, meaning the people who are working or looking for work, is now at 64.3 percent, a 30-year low.
With numbers like that, with Obama having wiped out 30 years of job creation under presidents of both parties, is it any surprise that 62 percent of respondents in the CBS News/New York Times poll "cited the economy as the most important issue in the presidential election"?
"Concern over the budget deficit ranked a distant second at 11 percent, followed by health care at 9 percent. Seven percent picked same-sex marriage, 4 percent cited foreign policy and 2 percent chose immigration," according to an analysis of the numbers conducted by CBS.
The response of the White House and Obama's campaign to the numbers has been to attack the way the survey was conducted—which is really their only choice since they can't dispute what the numbers say. The president's deputy campaign manager, Stephanie Cutler, told NBC's Chuck Todd, "We can't put the methodology of that poll aside, because the methodology was significantly biased." When pressed, Cutler called the sample "biased."
Maybe so, but that doesn't get around the fact that 67 percent of respondents—remember these are registered voters, not likely voters—rated the condition of the national economy as either "fairly bad" or "very bad." And 63 percent said they thought things would stay the same or get worse.
Equally disturbing for the White House, and perhaps the reason why the Obama campaign, its political allies, and its friends in the media have suddenly unleashed the attack squad against the former governor, is that this same poll found Romney leading among independents, among men and among women, 46 percent to 44 percent for the president—still within the margin of error but an indication that any bounce the Democrats might have gotten over accusations the GOP was engaged in a "war on women" has dissipated.
Team Obama needs a new strategy. It doesn't take a college degree to figure out that just about the only thing left is to try and make Romney radioactive, which means a nasty and negative summer is in the offing. It will be interesting to see if the same journalists and Washington "deep thinkers" who call out the Republicans every time they say something uncomplimentary will be as hard on the Democrats as they "go nuclear" on Romney.
I support the Constitution.
Charles you are a decent preacher.
I always tell a joke when I walk into a house.
Or a truth.
Usually both
Can't happen. The UN Secretary General can't be from one of he permanent members of the Security Council.
I thought they could vote to overrule that.
Well, he want’s it bad.
Obama is rolling over all the rules
I’m voting against both. See tagline
He took a BLOOD oath to put the LDS church first, so either he is a liar or an oath breaker.
Guaranteed he will do what his prophet tells him to do.
I have no issues with either Pentecostals or Southern Baptists.
I am fighting for conservatism. Romney ain’t it.
I Think we have ONE ENEMY
I support the Constitution.
- - - —
So do I, that applies to CONGRESS, not individual voters. Individual voters and (and should) have a religious test.
BTW, several states had a state religious test after the ratification. Look it up.
If you want to compromise your faith and vote for a cultist - go ahead. I’m not going to stop you.
But don’t tell me how to vote or try to guilt me into voting for a lying, pro-abortion, pro gun control liberal.
If you mean Satan, yes.
If you mean Obama, then we have TWO enemies. Romney and Obama.
I will never vote for Romney, I cannot deny my faith and conservative principles and I will sleep soundly for it.
This whole RMCF is the GOPs fault and I am shocked at the number of so called conservatives who are voting for a pro abortion, pro gun control statist.
I’m with JR on this one. NO ROMNEY NO WAY!!
Good night FRiend.
We disagree
Obama is below 50% in every batlleground state and many secure Blue states and not by a little,by 5+ points. An incumbant doesn’t make that up, he is toast. His party knows it, his advisors know it, and they are in full panic mode!
Hope springs eternal in the human breast.
Obama hid his agenda behind “Hope & Change” and many people were suckered in. He never defined his agenda for the economy. except perhaps when a hot mike caught his comment to Joe the Plumber.
This socialist thug from Chicago had never run even a hot dog stand successfully before being anointed president. Now he has a record and every intelligent person has him figured out.
He is toast, unless America wants to morph into a Spain style socialist state. My daughter reports from Spain the situation on ground, and it is heart-breaking.
Voting third party isn’t standing for priciple. It’s avoiding making the unpleasant choice as to which of the only two realistic alternatives is better for the country, while feeling smug and self satisfied. It accomplishes nothing in the real world, but makes you feel good about yourself. Symbolism over substance. It’s a very liberal think to do when you get down to it.
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