How You Should Interpret The Polls Showing Obama and Romney Being Tied

[Yavin4]

Romney, and the other Republican candidates, have spent the last 6 months attacking the president throughout various debates. Romney has been giving clean shot after clean shot on Obama without getting any shots himself from his opponents.

IOW, Romney has had the court to himself, but that court will soon be joined by someone who won't be afraid to take Romney head-on.

[banned from Kos]

1. I am sick of that lying piece of shit Romney saying "Obama apoligizes for America"

not once has he done such.

[Enrique]

2. Romney has also been getting attacked by all his primary opponents

And Obama does not have a primary opponent.

I think the best thing to do with the polls is ignore them.

[movonne]

10. This is the next step in getting a repug elected....media will put these polls up

and a hired groups are on the polls...the repugs is getting a lot of corporate money and can spend freely on all kinds of tricks...so when they steal the election we will not know it will look fair...(also they have hired groups to write comments on newspapers and web sites...)

[griffi94]

3. i interpret it like this

the economy still hasn't recovered, unemployment is still really high,
lots of people still staring at losing their homes.
people are afraid, and while romney won't be any better, he will be different.

romney will imo look attractive enough for some the swing voters to support. by that
i mean he doesn't look batshit crazy like the rest of the gop field..he looks kinda moderate next
to the crazies in fact.

if things haven't significantly improved by mid summer, and romney does win the nomination, i think he could in fact win.

[DesertFlower]

4. i wonder about polls.

no one ever asks me.

[Sherman A1]

5. I interpret is as

media self serving nonsense.

They want and need a horse race and there simply will not be one, so lacking that, time to move to the wishful thinking plan B.

[Hugabear]

6. It's still way too early in the race

Let people learn more about Romney, Paul, and the rest of the repukes. Then let's talk.

[Drahthaardogs]

7. This is a weird election.

Normally the attacks come after the nomination and the incumbent's ratings start to drop. Obama has been under attack since day 1 of his Presidency. 49-ish is his floor I suspect. Romney has yet to face the fire. When he does, Obama will pull ahead. Romney is too weak a candidate to beat Obama.

[cthulu2016]

8. Cuts both ways

On one side, Obama has not begun the active campaigning and large-scale campaign spending. Nor have most liberal affiliated groups.

And the economy has room to improve a little.

On the other side, regarding the polls themselves, the national match-up polls this far out are either all-americans or registered-voters so they are skewed a few points in our favor.

If all Americans were required to vote we would almost always win. If all currently registered voters always voted we would do better than we do. Likely voters and actual voters are a somewhat tougher crowd for us.

All things together, the polls are good at what they do. If a presidential election were held TODAY and all registered voters voted it would very likely be within a point or two.

That's all the polls say.

[Journeyman]

9. I interpret it as "January," well before a long campaign gets underway. . .

[Union Scribe]

11. Yeah they're the ones in the spotlight now

So I'd expect them to have decent numbers. In fact, they can't even beat Obama despite their monopoly of the media during their primaries. Really it doesn't look bad for Obama at all.

[tsuki]

12. That Americans are stupid. nt

[Kalidurga]

13. There are a few zingers that are going to stick on Romney.

Vulture Capitalism, thanks Newt.

Romney the job cremator.

Dogs against Romney.

Romney House of waffles.

Willard Smiley son of Guy Smiley.

Magic Pants Romney.


I don't know which ones will stick, but I am sure at least one or more of those will stick when people start paying attention in about 10 months.

[RickFromMN]

15. Even if taken out of context, Romney likes to fire people. That statement is memorable.

[Lil Missy]

14. First I'd ask how many polled are registered voters. And,

was a reliable sample taken? Was the poll done with Fox news viewers?

I can't imagine Romney could ultimately win compared to Obama. But then .... george the lessor is the most recent standard for repub voters .....

[applegrove]

16. At this stage of the race the presumed nominee is higher in the polls vs an incumbent President.

Obama's numbers will rise as the race becomes about just the two of them.

[sadbear]

17. Romney is currently campaigning and President Obama is currently running the country