Cross-posted from Lehigh Valley Independent.
If I keep posting every time a poll is released that shows Arlen Specter's candidacy as viable in the General Election as a wet sock, we're all going to get pretty bored pretty fast. But what the hell. It's still early on, right?
And this poll (PDF) doesn't spell disaster as badly as most others do for Mr. Specter [at least in some ways], so it's at least slightly different.
Franklin Marshall released a poll yesterday of 1,143 adults (954 registered voters) and found that, amongst likely voters, Toomey bests Specter 44-34. This FM poll does actually look pretty good if you compare it to the average of all the Toomey/Specter polls which lies around 45-36.
If you're wondering what the good news for Arlen Specter is, it's that he's beating Toomey in a poll of registered voters, 33-29. A four point lead with 62% of Pennsylvania undecided is something, at least! Give the guy a break. It's probably the best he's going to get.
The most interesting number in this poll is the percentage of people that think that Specter should be re-elected. Ready for it? 25%! Good God, man. When you need 51% of the state to vote for you and more than half of that already thinks you don't deserve it, you are in big trouble.
Laying off Specter for a minute, the other internals of this poll are very interesting:
- 72% of Democrats don't yet know who they're supporting for Governor.
- 65% of Republicans feel the same.
- More Pennsylvanians support the Tea Party movement than oppose it (39-29).
- While 34% would be likely or somewhat likely to vote for a Tea Party candidate.
- 100% of Pennsylvanians finally have an opinion on Barack Obama's job performance.
- 41% Good/Excellent, 32% Fair, and 27% Poor.
- Pennsylvanians are optimists.
- 75% of whom feel they will be the same or better off in a year from now.
- And 22% of Pennsylvanians think abortion should be illegal in all circumstances.