Mitt Romney is closing the gap in Florida and Wisconsin, according to today’s Quinnipiac/CBS/NYT poll. According to Quinnipiac, this seems to be a mini-bump from the Paul Ryan pick:
Matching Obama against Romney among likely voters in each of these key states shows:
- Florida: Obama at 49 percent to Romney’s 46 percent, compared to Obama’s 51 – 45 percent lead August 1;
- Ohio: Obama edges Romney 50 – 44 percent, unchanged from August 1;
- Wisconsin: Obama at 49 percent to Romney’s 47 percent, compared to Obama’s 51 – 45 percent lead August 8.
Ohio is the one state polled where Romney’s numbers have remained flat. The poll was also taken between August 15 and August 21, so it may not reflect any negative impact from the wall-to-wall Todd Akin coverage (though abortion issues don’t rank anywhere near a top concern with swing-state voters, according to the poll).
While senior citizens seem to view Ryan positively, one potential obstacle for Republicans is the general opposition to a “voucher-type” Medicare system in all three swing states:
Voters in each state say Obama would do a better job on Medicare and reject by wide margins a voucher-type Medicare system: 62 – 28 percent in Florida, 64 – 27 percent in Ohio and 59 – 32 percent in Wisconsin, the survey by Quinnipiac/CBS/The Times finds.
Obviously a big part of the Obama campaign’s Mediscare strategy will involve hammering in the idea that Romney and Ryan want to “voucherize” Medicare.
It's so odd to me that Obama would be leading at all, considering the horrendous state of our economy.
Ms. Goodman, please, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeez do not post any more of these polls without at least digging into them and finding out what the sample sizes are for Democrats, Republicans and Independents. n nIt does no good to comment upon a bad poll. All of the polls I have seen showing Obama with any kind of statistically significant lead oversample Democrats in the worst way. You are just doing the job of the Obama Campaign when you give credence to a poll without FIRST checking its legitimacy. Yes, even Quinippiac can oversample Dems.
Both of the above posters are correct. Assuming there was a so-called Ryan bounce, what does this imply when the bounce disappears? Obama regains relatively comfortable leads. Very discouraging, even if there is a bit of oversampling Democrats for the reason "blue" gives.
I think they call that a "dead cat bounce".
Leftists and rightists, in their different ways, are victims of their faith. Faith is inherently wrong, since were designed to think and question. nAfter the Scopes Trial in 1925, creationism died down as a political force. There were still creationists, of course, but they were closeted. Then the Counterculture and New Age thinking became fashionable. Spirituality became a major idea, and reality was questioned. Creationists came out of the closet. Leftists became de facto supporters of Islamic fundamentalism. nThe Tannaim and Amoraim, who wrote the Talmud almost 2000 years ago, ended Jewish fundamentalism. They explicitly said one should never enforce laws like Deuteronomy 21:19-21, which commands us to take a son who is rebellious and a glutton to be stoned. They continued the tradition of wrestling with God, just as Jacob did. His name was then changed to Israel (wrestled God). nToday, fundamentalism–whether philosophical or religious–controls the Republican Party, Iran, and North Korea.
Interesting comments, but I think your conclusion takes too much of a leap. First of all, fundamentalism should not be confused with, as I think you are implicitly, evangelicalism. To be sure, some evangelicals are fundamentalists, but many are not. Secondly, though I've never seen an attempt to quantify the numbers, I would guess that many evangelicals are not fundamentalists. Thirdly, I have seen figures which estimate that about one-third of self-identifying Republicans are evangelicals. n nI have posted the last two days that I suspect Akin's who is an evangelical(fundamentalist, I don't know)refusal to withdraw has been motivated by how he views his personal interaction with God in prayer and what he believes that interaction has told him what to do. This is what very religious people of all persuasions do and feel comforted in doing so. But what has been interesting, to contradict g, has been the substantial number of conservatives, likely of all religious views, to have strongly condemned his comments. Doesn't seem like fundamentalism, evangelicalism or any other ism, other than pragmatism , is calling the shots. n