Battleground Poll: Obama's Approval Rating Up 9 Points; Would Beat Any Republican Challenger, Even a Generic

Rasmussen had good news.

The bipartisan Battleground Poll has bad news.

President Barack Obama’s approval rating is 53 percent, up 9 percentage points in four months. Matched up against his Republican opponents, he leads Mitt Romney by 10 points (53-43) and Rick Santorum by 11 (53-42). Even against a generic, unnamed Republican untarnished by attacks, Obama is up 5 percentage points. In November, he was tied.

“We’ve not been talking about which would do a better job of running against Obama. We’ve been talking about who is the most or who is the least conservative,” said Republican pollster Ed Goeas of The Tarrance Group, who helped conduct the bipartisan poll. “That is a problem for Republicans.”

Click through to the Politico story to see fuller results, including Romney's poor showing with independents.

Romney is bloodied after nine contests, five of which he has lost. Only 33 percent of independents view him favorably, compared with 51 percent who see him in an unfavorable light. In a head-to-head match-up against Obama among independents, Romney now trails 49 percent to 27 percent.

...

Santorum’s slight advantage is striking because Romney holds significant leads over the former Pennsylvania senator among likely primary voters on which of the four remaining candidates would best handle jobs (14 percentage points), the economy (19) and balancing the budget (21). Of five areas tested, Santorum leads Romney only on social issues.

My argument against Santorum is based on this:

Among independents, Santorum fares better than Romney: He is viewed favorably by 40 percent and unfavorably by 32 percent. But he remains largely undefined: 28 percent of independents either have no opinion of the ex-senator or have never heard of him. Even among Republicans, that number is 17 percent.

Romney's flaws are discussed constantly. Obama's team has been attacking him for months, too.

But Santorum only recently began to get the negative coverage that is part of any coverage of a Republican contender.

posted by Ace at 02:27 PM

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