Quinnipiac poll: Obama in Pennsylvania virtual tie with … Rick Santorum?
Hotair ^ | 08/02/2011 | Ed Morrissey
Bad news comes out of the must-carry state of Pennsylvania today for Barack Obama and his re-election hopes. Not only has Obama fallen far below water in his approval rating in the latest Quinnipiac poll, he has now dropped into a tie against a potential Republican nominee. No, this isn’t a generic Republican, either:
The protracted slugfest over raising the national debt limit leaves President Barack Obama with a 54 – 43 percent disapproval among Pennsylvania voters, but he scores better than Republicans or Democrats in Congress, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. …
Pennsylvania voters say 52 – 42 percent that Obama does not deserve to be reelected. Matching the president against possible Republican challengers shows:
•Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with 44 percent to Obama’s 42 percent;
•Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum with 43 percent to Obama’s 45 percent;
•Obama leads Minnesota U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann 47 – 39 percent;
•Obama tops Texas Gov. Rick Perry 45 – 39 percent.
The internals of the poll look even worse for Obama. The overall deserves-re-election number is 42/52, a very bad number in Democrat-heavy Pennsylvania, where Democrats account for half of all registered voters. Independents split almost exactly the same at 42/51, and the only region in which Obama has a majority for re-election is Philadelphia. Even among union households, which should be Obama’s bread and butter, he only gets a narrow 48/45 split, roughly a virtual tie.
The head-to-head numbers are simply embarrassing for a Democratic President in Pennsylvania, especially against a former Keystone State Senator who got blown out in his last statewide election. There is another reason to worry, too, in that series. Obama doesn’t get to 50% against any Republican in head-to-head matchups, usually a big red flag for incumbents. The best he does is 47% against Michele Bachmann.
If Obama is doing this badly in Pennsylvania, it strongly suggests a big opening in the Rust Belt for Republicans next year. Democrats in Michigan have a similar registration advantage, but not in Ohio, Indiana, or even Wisconsin, which have similar demographics as Pennsylvania and all of which Obama carried in 2008. Obama has a big, big problem in this region, and losing Pennsylvania might just be the beginning of his woes.
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Obama is going down worse than carter. He is a bubonic plague on this nation.
