Three New Polls, More Bad News for Obama

Let's go in reverse order, from least to most alarming for Team Obama. First up is the new daily tracking poll from Rasmussen, which shows Mitt Romney surging to a three-point lead nationwide:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows Mitt Romney attracting 47% of the vote, while President Obama earns support from 44%. Five percent (5%) prefer some other candidate, and four percent (4%) are undecided. Fifty-five percent (55%) favor repeal of the president’s health care law. Most (57%) say they haven’t yet been affected by the law, but concerns about cost continue to be the top priority for health care reform. Just 14% believe that today’s children will be better off than their parents. That’s the lowest level of optimism ever measured.

The topline of that survey is ephemeral and relatively important. As I mentioned earlier, head-to-head numbers aren't salient at this juncture of the campaign. The piece about generational optimism is much more serious. In a previous post, we discussed Romney's emerging edge on economic issues, noting that Obama's gaping personality advantage is keeping him in the game. Two countervailing data points -- the NYT/CBS poll, which showed the president's favorability rating flipping upside-down, and thisnew survey (via Politico):