The 1,000th Post--The Pew Poll

Thank you to all the readers as we reach the 1,000th milestone on this blog, which now has lasted nearly three years. It's been a hoot.

Now for the last item of the Pew Poll. President Obama's approval rating is 46%. If you compare approval ratings beginning with Jimmy Carter, if President Obama can get up to 48% he is re-elected.

Now for the Republican contest. The Pew finds there is less satisfaction among Republicans with their choices this year than during the last election. Also that the intensity factor for both Newt and Romney is lagging.

Here are the findings:
Newt is at 35%, his support has doubled in the last month, taking alot of that from Herman Cain supporters.
Mitt is steady at his 21%, which seems to be his ceiling for the past year.

35% of Republicans believe Newt can beat Obama.
28% think Romney can.

70% say they would support or vote for Gingrich.
61% say they would support or vote for Romney.

18% say they would never vote for Gingrich.
26% say they would never vote for Romney.
Over 40% have ruled out any of the other candidates.

What's interesting is that only 29% strongly support Newt but 33% strongly support Romney.

The Tea Party results are not as mystifying as they might seem at close glance. Newt is favored 35% to 20% over Romney. If their preferred candidate isn't available, 40% would vote for Romney. In one of my next posts, I'll described the findings of two scholars who studied the Tea Party phenomenon and concluded that their number one goal is to defeat Barack Obama. But 31% of the Tea Party said there was no chance they could vote for Romney. Only 17% said the same about Gingrich. 75% said they would vote for him.

The Evangelical Christian vote is reveealing. 10% favor Romney and 41% said there would be a chance thet would vote for him. 35% of evengelicals said under no circumstances would they vote for him. 35% were for Gingrich and another 30% said they could vote for him. Only 18% said they would not vote for Gingrich.

On the Gender Gap. 40% of males favored Gingrich over 19% for Romney. Surprisingly 29% of women were for Gingrich against only 22% for Romney.

In the South, Gingrich has 41% support and Romney only 16%.
But in the West, Romney nets 30% to Gingrich's 27%.

The Washington Post again had several op-eds blasting Gingrich. The Republican establishment is going apeshit over Newt's popularity because as we've seen in other polls he would be wiped out by Obama.

If this was troubling Republicans enough, the number 1 Vice Presidential pick for both Newt and Romney is the new Florida Senator Marco Rubio. He was a darling of the Tea Party and thought to be the solution to the Republican's increasing problem with Hispanics. But Rubio may not even be helpful in winning Florida with its sizeable Cuban population.

The PPP has been tracking Rubio's approval ratings for the past several months. They have constantly declined. Now he is at 40/40. But what's so interesting is that only 24% of Floridians say they'd be more likely to vote for the GOP ticket if Rubio was on it, compared to 41% who said they were less inclined. The numbers with independents were a dysmal 22/38. Apparently, Rubio's opposition to the Hispanic ambassador to El Salvador has sparked bad feelings in the Hispanic community. So Rubio is now in a muddle and his prospects as being the Hispanic bullet appear to be diminishing.