The Good

A new poll by Washington Whispers asked respondents what they feared most in 2012. By a 2-to-1 margin, Americans said that they feared Obama's reelection in November.  Their second greatest fear to an Obama reelection was higher taxes. 

Gallup poll tracking shows that Barack Obama’s approval rating has dropped to just 42%.  If you take a look at the details of this 42% approval rating, you will see an interesting breakdown of where he has lost support.  His highest approval rating still remains with black voters at 83% approval.

The Bad

More Gallup polling found the following: “The percentage of Americans identifying as political independents increased in 2011, as is common in a non-election year, although the 40% who did so is the highest Gallup has measured, by one percentage point. More Americans continue to identify as Democrats than as Republicans, 31% to 27%.”  Now I’m not sure about the last part, because I’ve read recently that there are more self-described Republicans than there are Democrats, but the fact is that the GOP nominee is going to have to fight hard for these “independent” voters if he is going to beat Barack Obama.

The Ugly

A new CBS poll found that 58% of Republican primary voters want more presidential choices.  In other words, Republicans aren’t too enthused with the choices they have now.  Maybe they were at the beginning when we had people like Tim Pawlenty and Herman Cain in the mix, but now they feel like they are without a candidate.  This lack of enthusiasm is not good for Republicans.  As bad as things look for Barack Obama, there will be a lot of uninformed ignoranuses who will fight hard to see him reelected.  That kind of blind passion will be hard to match against voters who are still looking at the menu and wondering if there are any specials that aren’t listed.