By Susan Duclos
Gallup reports that U.S. registered voters favor a generic Republican candidate over Obama by a 46 percent to 38 percent margin. That eight point lead persists when the leanings of undecided voters are factored in with the numbers being 50 percent for the generic Republican and 42 percent for Obama.
Personally I give more credence to the generic presidential ballot than any head to head polling between Obama and individual Republican candidates because until one GOP candidate is nominated there is no predictive value in the head to heads because the party as a whole, and Independents leaning Republican, do not have one person to unite behind, in the Republican contest as of yet.
In May, Gallup had Obama up on the generic Republican by three points. By June the generic Republican according to Gallup had jumped to a 5 point lead over Obama. July, Gallup had the generic Republican up on Obama by 8 points.
This is not a pattern that bodes well for Barack Obama's reelection aspirations.
What won't help Obama rise in the generic presidential polls in the coming months, is his good/bad news which is the exact same news.... the good news according to some economists is that we might not go into another recession, or it would be good news if not for the caveat of "Many of the key sectors that usually cause economic contraction, including housing and durable goods such as automobiles, are already at such low levels that they don’t have much more room to fall." (Source- Washington Post Business)
No president wants to hear that the reason things won't get worse is because they have already hit rock bottom under his term of presidency.
