While there is still over a year to go before the 2012 presidential election and preliminary polling is just that, patterns and trends are key to see which candidates are rising and which are falling behind.
FiveThirtyEight (leans Dem) shows Governor Rick Perry has risen above every other GOP candidate in the race to see who will be the Republican nominee for president in 2012. Perry has done this in a matter of two weeks since he has declared his candidacy while his name recognition is still shy of Mitt Romney's.
This finding is consistent among multiple polls from a variety of polling organizations.
Primary polls can be erratic, so the rule is not to get too worked up about any one set of numbers. But now there have been five surveys conducted since Rick Perry announced his presidential campaign — one each from Gallup, Rasmussen Reports and Public Policy Polling, and two from YouGov. Each shows Mr. Perry having vaulted into a lead over Mitt Romney.On average, Mr. Perry gets 26 percent of the vote in the new surveys, as compared to 16 percent for Mr. Romney. By comparison, in polls conducted in the month prior to Mr. Perry’s announcement, he averaged 14 percent to Mr. Romney’s 21 percent.
Since we are on the topic of Perry, among many many others writing about Perry, head over to Daily Beast for a very entertaining endorsement for Perry by one of his former opponents for Governor, by Kinky Friedman.
Teaser:
So would I support Rick Perry for president? Hell, yes! As the last nail that hasn’t been hammered down in this country, I agree with Rick that there are already too damn many laws, taxes, regulations, panels, committees, and bureaucrats. While Obama is busy putting the hyphen between “anal” and “retentive” Rick will be rolling up his sleeves and getting to work.
A still, small voice within keeps telling me that Rick Perry’s best day may yet be ahead of him, and so too, hopefully, will be America’s.
Yet another article pertaining to Perry's candidacy shows that Perry's rise has struck fear into Team Obama as well if their latest email blast to Texas supporters is any indication. They want dirt, they want complaints against Perry to use against him and they even set up an online form for people to use to that purpose.
Last (for now) but not least, Perry told Laura Ingraham on her radio show that "Mitt is finally recognizing that the Massachusetts healthcare plan he passed is a huge problem for him."
He is right, that is one issue conservative voters and many many independent voters will not forget, especially since Obamacare is so similar to Romney's Mass. healthcare law and the majority of Americans are still opposed to that.
YouTube clip below is the the audio of that interview:
The headlines are focusing on Perry's comments about Romneycare, but in the interview above, Ingraham and Perry discuss many other issues, so if you have the time, listen to the whole thing.
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