GIGANTIC HORROR POLL: Obama Favorability In the Dumps, Bain Attack Ineffective

When you see these numbers, keep in mind that no matter Obama's policies, he's always enjoyed strong favorability from the American public. "He's a likeable guy," they said.

Until now.

Quite suddenly people aren't afraid to say they just don't like him. (The columns in order are Total, Rep, Dem, Ind.)

The overall numbers are bad for Obama, a twelve point deficit. But just look at the independents. That's catastrophically bad for Obama, a twenty-four point deficit. And he used to be so likeable.

What happened? Five things.

(1) Obama became the bad guy.
Obama has been running an astonishingly nasty campaign for the past month. The days of happy hope and change are gone. Now he's wandering around the country pushing his class warfare on half-empty auditoriums. His media mouthpieces are grunting "felon, felon" whenever they can find a microphone. His DNC is still attacking the other guy's wife.

Hope and change? Nope.

(2) Obama pandered.
Obama has a serious problem. His base, the far Left, support a whole bunch of policies that the rest of the country do not. He needs his base to help fund his reelection, but they weren't having any of that without some demonstration of his radical bonafides. So he pandered to them. He "evolved" on gay marriage just as his bundlers reported that his previous marriage stance was keeping him from bringing in the big donors. He instituted the DREAM Act by executive slight-of-hand. So he shored up his far Left. Unfortunately for him (and fortunately for us), these issues appear to motivate Republicans more than anyone else---that is, they motivate opposition to Obama more than support. (Again: Total, Rep, Dem, Ind.)

(3) Nobody cares about Bain.
Obama has devoted an entire month to attacks based on the theory that voters will be turned off by Romney's association with Bain Capital. This theory is all that Obama's got left and the Democrats have been getting screechier and screechier as it goes. They started with "vulture capitalism" and ended up with "felon!" And what did it get them?

Nobody cares. At least, not enough that it matters. And not even Democrats.

(4) It's about the economy, stupid.
I know, I know. Overused. But true. (Again, columns in order are Total, Rep, Dem, Ind.)

(5) Romney is going to save the economy.
And here, Romney's noteworthy ability not to be distracted by Obama's latest flailing pays off. Romney's been focused on the economy from way back in the primaries. Voters noticed:

And there you have it.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 08:23 AM

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