ObergrupenFhuer: Herr Docktor Paul Pretty Much Tied With Obama

Um. really?

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of likely voters finds Obama with 42% support and Paul with 41% of the vote. Eleven percent (11%) prefer some other candidate, and six percent (6%) are undecided.

Ask the Political Class, though, and it’s a blowout. While 58% of Mainstream voters favor Paul, 95% of the Political Class vote for Obama.

But Republican voters also have decidedly mixed feelings about Paul, who has been an outspoken critic of the party establishment.

Obama earns 79% support from Democrats, but Paul gets just 66% of GOP votes. Voters not affiliated with either major party give Paul a 47% to 28% edge over the president.

Paul, a anti-big government libertarian who engenders unusually strong feelings among his supporters, was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. But he continues to have a solid following, especially in the growing Tea Party movement.

Drudge was teasing this but I thought it was going to be some wacky polling group we'd never heard of.

I imagine this is just an Anybody but Obama thing that simply has Paul's name in the "anybody" slot. I mean, if I got a call asking, "In a match up between Ron Paul and Barack Obama, who would you vote for?" I guess I'd say Paul. But even knowing I'd never face that in reality, I'd shower for awhile. A long time actually.

I don't get why Rasmussen chose to poll Paul in that slot. There's just no one in the world who honestly believes this is even within the realm of possibility which will make this poll and other ones he releases easier to dismiss.

For some context, Michael Barone explains why Rasumussen polls tend to be more Republican friendly.

Related: You know those billboards featuring George W. Bush asking "Miss me yet?" Seems the answer is, "yeah, actually we do".

posted by DrewM. at 12:18 PM

| Access Comments