The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) wrapped up Saturday on its third and final day. One function of the annual conference is to allow potential Republican presidential candidates to telegraph their intentions to run, while strutting their conservative stuff to the hungry conservative masses.
And there was a lot of telegraphy (and strutting) this year. We got coded messages from Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), Gov. Mitch Daniels (R-IN), Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN), Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX), Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS), Newt Gingrich, John Thune, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), and The Donald Trump. There were probably others there that I’ve forgotten about.
Two CPAC no-shows, Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee, are both expected to join competition as well. I mean, it isn’t a coincidence that Sarah Palin hired a chief of staff just today—the same person who worked for her 2008 VP campaign. She was telegraphing from a distance….
The G.O.P. 2012 primary field is still a little fuzzy as very few of these folks have actually admitted they are running.
The Democratic race is pretty clear. President Obama will run for reelection. There will be a couple of Democratic also-rans and crank candidates, but unless an authentic Kenyan long-form birth certificate is found, or someone uncovers a third grade report by Obama where he swears his allegiance to Chairman Mao, Obama is going to be the Democratic nominee.
Today a new FOX News poll does head-to-head match-ups between Obama and the top Republican (probable) candidates.
I know some readers will be dubious about a Fox News Poll. However, this one is done jointly by Anderson Robbins Research, a Democratic pollster, and Shaw & Company Research, a Republican pollster. The poll uses live interviews on a national sample of 911 registered voters from Feb 7-9. Both landlines and cell phones were included. The margin of error is 3%.
Here is a summary of answers to the question “thinking ahead to the next presidential election, if the election were held today, how would you vote if the candidates were…”
- Obama (48%), Romney (41%)
- Obama (49%), Huckabee (41%)
- Obama (56%), Palin (35%)
- Obama (55%), Gingrich (35%)
- Obama (54%), Jeb Bush (34%)
The findings for Palin, Gingrich and Jeb Bush are not overly surprising. However, Obama’s substantial lead over the two individuals who are widely considered the front runners is great news for Obama.
There was a poll released yesterday by Public Policy Polling that did head-to-head match-ups in nine swing states (defined as states that Barack Obama won in 2008 and that George Bush won in 2004. Indiana was excluded because of legal difficulties polling in the state. Nebraska CD 2 is also included because Obama won an electoral vote from there). The take-home message:
If he stood for reelection today against one of the current Republican front runners Obama would almost certainly win the same number of electoral votes he did in 2008, if not more.
Here are the numbers:
Obama v. |
2008 Vote |
Gingrich |
Huckabee |
Palin |
Romney |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Colorado |
+9 |
+14 |
+9 |
+19 |
+6 |
Florida |
+3 |
+5 |
+5 |
+14 |
+2 |
Iowa |
+10 |
+13 |
+4 |
+16 |
+6 |
NE-2 |
+1 |
+19 |
+11 |
+24 |
+9 |
Nevada |
+12 |
+11 |
+10 |
+13 |
+1 |
New Mexico |
+15 |
+21 |
+19 |
+29 |
+16 |
North Carolina |
+0 |
+6 |
+4 |
+9 |
+3 |
Ohio |
+4 |
+6 |
+1 |
+7 |
+2 |
Virginia |
+6 |
+11 |
+5 |
+11 |
+5 |
Clearly, the Republicans have a lot of work to do to catch up with Obama. After two years of ceaseless smears, Obama is still going very strong. Further smears aren’t going to cut it for the Republicans.
And Obama has most of the advantages. He is the power of incumbency. He will not have a bloody primary to fight. He will not have to shift his positions between the primary and general elections. And he has a long list of accomplishments to date.
Finally…Obama should achieve higher approval ratings over the next year. Political scientists have long noted that presidential approval suffers when his party is also in control of Congress. The House takeover by the Republicans last fall means that people’s opinions of Obama’s should rise. And that has been the trend since January.
You might say that Republicans taking the House in 2010 is Obama’s ticket to an easy re-election in 2012.