Time for some of that "the only poll that matters is election day" loser talk. (Joshua Lott/Reuters)
CNN/ORC (PDF). 3/24-25. Registered voters. MoE 3%
There's all sorts of suck in there if you're a Republican. Mitt Romney may be off his February lows in this poll, but that's cold comfort when you're still -12 in favorability with registered voters. And while Obama is -1 in job approval with independents, Romney is down 14, or 35 favorable-49 unfavorable.
And as for Obama's unfavorables—8 percent of Obama's detractors are unhappy because he's not liberal enough. And while some of those may vote for this year's Ralph Nader (Rocky Anderson, perhaps?), they won't be finding their way to the GOP anytime soon.
In the head-to-head matchup, independents choose Obama by a 55-40 margin. And while Obama leads 54-43 among registered voters, he defeats Romney 56-40 amongst all respondents—proving 1) why Republicans are so hell-bent on restricting voting rights, and 2) why it is so important to register our natural constituencies and turn them out at the polls.
There's more—asked whether Bush and Republicans or Obama and Democrats was to blame for the nation's "current economic problems," independents said Bush and his party were to blame by a whopping 26-54 margin, and even 15 percent of Republicans were honest enough to admit their party was to blame (compared to 6 percent of Lieberdems who blamed the Democrats). Overall, 29 percent blamed the Democrats, while 56 percent put the blame where it belonged (10 percent blamed both sides).
If there's anything for Republicans to be excited about in these numbers, I don't see it. And coming in the heels of devastating polls today from ABC News and Quinnipiac, it collectively makes for a terrible day over at RNC headquarters.
But hey, maybe this'll convince them to double down on their assaults on birth control, women and brown people (particularly those 1) wearing hoodies 2) speaking Spanish or 3) all of the above).