In a blog entry at the New York Times, Charles M. Blow examines poll numbers that show GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney's lack of support among conservatives. He says that the right simply cannot beat President Barack Obama without the passionate support of those voters.
The Republican Party has a big problem. Huge!
Their likely nominee isn’t much liked by the base of the party. Yet even as he loses primaries in the most conservative parts of the country, he continues to stack up delegates. He is Mitt of the Indomitable Math. He’s like the Terminator cyborg in “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,” who informs the hero John Connor that “Judgment Day is inevitable.” Romney, the Republican establishment and even Team Obama believe his nomination is inevitable.
That may be, but according to some new polls, the primary season is taking a devastating toll on Romney and the Republican brand as a whole, fueling something of a surge for the president.
The findings of a Pew Research Center poll released Wednesday show that President Obama has steadily increased his lead over Mitt Romney in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup, which now stands at a whopping 12 points, 54 percent to 42 percent. These results echoed a Reuters/Ipsos poll released earlier this week that showed Obama leading Romney by 11 points, 52 percent to 41 percent. As Reuters pointed out, that is “nearly double the margin from February.”
Want more good news, Team Obama? How about this: the Pew poll, the Reuters/Ipsos poll and a Gallup Poll released this week all show the president’s approval rating at or near 50 percent for the first time in months.
(For a counterpoint, a New York Times/CBS News poll and a Washington Post/ABC News poll, also released this week, both found the president’s approval rating dipping lower, 41 percent and 46 percent respectively.)
Furthermore, the Pew poll found the Democratic Party has opened the widest favorability gap over the Republican Party since April of 2009.
Read Charles M. Blow's entire blog entry at the New York Times.