Romney Leads Obama In Meaningless Poll

Obama Romney 3

More than a year after the 2012 election, a new poll shows Mitt Romney leading President Obama among registered voters:

As more bad poll numbers continue to pour in for President Barack Obama, a new survey finds that if the 2012 election matchup were held this month, Mitt Romney would hold the edge with the voters.

Romney topped Obama 49 percent to 45 percent among registered voters in the Washington Post-ABC News poll released Tuesday. Among all Americans, the 2012 rivals would be tied, at 47 percent.

Obama beat Romney 51 percent to 47 percent a year ago to win a second term.

This is largely a reflection of the fact that President Obama’s job approval rating, about which I’ll have more to say later today, has plummeted in the wake of the disastrous roll out of the Affordable Care Act. It does not mean that voters now wish that Romney had won the election, no matter how much people on the right are going to try to spin it in that direction. Indeed, it’s worth noting that Romney’s numbers in this poll are not significantly different from what he finally got in the 2012 election, it’s President Obama’s numbers that have slipped. So, no, this is not a sign that the public is regretting that they didn’t pick Romney over Obama.

FILED UNDER: 2012 Election, Public Opinion Polls, US Politics, , , , ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. al-Ameda says:

    I take this poll as a measure of the latent support for Romney(Obama) Care.

  2. EddieinCA says:

    Again, showing how stupid the American Media is…

    Obama (and any Dem) starts with 220+ electoral college votes.
    Romney (and any GOP candidate) starts with about 100.

    It so much easier to find 50 electoral votes than it is to find 170.

    It’s about the EC, stupid.

  3. Gustopher says:

    It means Romney should start running for President again. Third time is the charm, Mittens!

    I really cannot get enough of watching that man lose.

  4. Jimbo OPKS says:

    Romney could have run Obamacare better than Obama.

  5. ernieyeball says:

    @Jimbo OPKS:..Romney could have run Obamacare better than Obama.

    Maybe. See http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2012/11/09/romneys-get-out-the-vote-fiasco/

    The Wednesday before the election, Mitt Romney sent a special message to volunteers about a special project his campaign was working on: “With state of the art technology and an extremely dedicated group of volunteers, our campaign will have an unprecedented advantage on election day.

    The story of how monumental a failure Project ORCA was on Election Day was first reported by a volunteer, John Ekdahl, on the Ace of Spades blog. After tweeting the article, I was contacted by several other volunteers who were eager to explain in greater detail just how many things went wrong with Project Orca on Tuesday.

    Selective memory is a wonderful thing!

  6. Gromitt Gunn says:

    @Jimbo OPKS: And he already did!

    (No, really. He did. In Massachusetts. When he was the Governor.)

  7. Pinky says:

    Anything that leads a low-information voter to take a more critical stroll through his decision-making process is a good thing.