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 top three items are right in Mitt Romney's wheelhouse, according to the latest USA Today/Gallup poll. He leads on job creation, deficits, and the economy. Romney can also point to his Olympics resume to illustrate his ability to extricate an enterprise from the throes of corruption and scandal. Pay special attention to what registers dead last on the list: Democrats' obsession with tax "fairness." Raising taxes on successful businesses and families would do absolutely nothing to address the item at the very top of the roster, job creation. In fact, it would be counter-productive, to the tune of 700,000 destroyed jobs. Let's have this debate.


UPDATE - Ed Morrissey points out that The Hill's poll has a partisan sample of R+1, which may be a tad generous. Then again, it's far less absurd than the D+7/8/9...12 samples we've seen from other pollsters. The 2004 presidential election electorate was split evenly between Democrats and Republicans. Given the marked shift in voter enthusiasm this year, the '04 model looks much more realistic than the '08 one.