By Dave Andrusko
With the electorate increasing pointing the finger at President Obama for the weakness of the economy and with polls showing more states that were supposed to be Obama’s for the taking now competitive, a new poll from The Hill newspaper is particularly noteworthy.
The first two sentences of “The Hill Poll: Voters say Romney, Obama equal on issues of character,” by Sheldon Alberts, give the reader both the core of the results and the implications:
“Mitt Romney holds thin advantages over President Obama on leadership, personal values and honesty, according to a new poll for The Hill.
“The poll, conducted for The Hill by Pulse Opinion Research, suggests voters see little difference between the candidates on character issues that Democrats have cited as key to Obama’s appeal” (emphasis added).
Why do these results possibly “raise a red flag for Obama”? According to Alberts because it raises questions [again] about Obama’s strategy of trying to paint Gov. Mitt as out of touch with average voters; and because Obama “needs to maintain a strong personal connection with voters to balance off his chief political weakness — the economy.”
The questions and methodology are slightly different than those used by Gallup, but the fact remains that things have changed:
“In June, a USA Today/Gallup poll found 60 percent of voters considered Obama honest and trustworthy, compared to 50 percent for Romney. The Gallup survey also showed more people believed Obama shared their values (53 percent) than Romney (45 percent).”
Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University, told The Hill, “I think in a very close election — which this one promises to be — those intangibles do make a difference and it could be a decisive difference for some people.” He pointed out that “Even before Romney was the [de facto Republican] nominee, Obama’s character and personality always polled better than his policies and better than his performance.”
“If he were being evaluated purely on performance, he would be in great difficulty,” Jillson said.
On the specifics, 1,000 likely voters said
· Stronger leader: Romney 48%, Obama 44%
· Most shares their values: Romney 47%, Obama 44%
· More honest and trustworthy: Romney 46%, Obama 44%
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