National polls are showing no sign of budging, with President Obama holding on to a 47%-44% lead. But new polling shows the concerted attacks on Romney's Bain record are starting to have an effect.
Polling suggests President Obama’s attacks on Mitt Romney’s private-equity background at Bain Capital are hurting the presumptive GOP nominee in key swing states.
The effect is being compared to the focused effect the attacks by the Bush campaign had on John Kerry in 2004.
But there are signs the negative ads and focused discussion on Romney’s business background are hurting the Republican in much the same way the attacks on John Kerry’s Vietnam service hurt the Democratic nominee in the 2004 race, when national numbers held but key biographical metrics began to erode for Kerry.
A poll done for Priorities USA
found similar results, with very good news for President Obama.
Priorities USA Action, a super PAC supporting President Obama’s reelection bid, released polls on Wednesday that it says show that Romney’s favorability has declined in five key battleground states as a result of its $10 million ad campaign slamming his business record at the helm of Bain Capital.
The polls, conducted by Democratic firms Global Strategy Group and Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group, found that more likely voters have an unfavorable view of Romney than a favorable one in five swing states: Colorado, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
Romney has an average favorable rating of only 36 percent in those states, with an average 43 percent unfavorable rating. Among independent voters, the ratio is worse: 30 percent favorable and 42 percent unfavorable. Thirty-seven percent of those polled said that Romney’s business record at Bain made them less likely to vote for him. Only 27 percent said it made them more likely to do so.
Priorities also released a
memo stating that Mitt Romney's central qualification, hisbusiness experience, is becoming more of a liability rather than an advantage.
MEMORANDUM
TO: Interested Parties
FROM:Jefrey Pollock & Nick Gourevitch, Global Strategy Group; Geoff Garin, Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group
RE: Priorities USA Action Polling Memo
Mitt Romney’s business experience – the centerpiece of his case for the presidency – has proven to be
much more of a liability than an asset in key swing states. Clear negative trends have emerged in recent
polling conducted in Colorado, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia by Global Strategy Group and
Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group on behalf of Priorities USA Action. The following memo summarizes
the findings of five statewide polls consisting of over 3,800 total interviews with likely voters between
June 25 and July 3, 2012.
The aforementioned article points out that the ads are aimed at the political class, not voters. It certainly drove the narrative by the end of the week and the discussion on the Sunday talk shows.
But what may contradict that and be of the most interest, and heartening to those of us who bemoan the lack of media coverage of Romney's background, is evidence that interest in it is spiking and people are doing their own research, and talking about Bain.
Google Analytics shows that the number of searches for “Bain Capital” has jumped dramatically in the last week. Many of those Google searches came from swing states — including Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia — where the Obama campaign is airing ads attacking Romney and his record at Bain.
The interest in Bain also went up on Twitter. According to the third-party analysis tool Topsy Labs, the number of tweets mentioning the private equity firm jumped last week, dipped quickly on Sunday and then spiked on Monday. Topsy says it weeds out tweets by bots or “spammy sources.”
This is essentially uncharted territory, but seems to illustrate the waning influence of the traditional gatekeepers driving the conversation, the MSM.
I don't find this news nauseating at all.