President Obama is beating Mitt Romney in a general election matchup 53 percent to 40 percent, a new Bloomberg National poll shows. The poll also shows 53 percent of likely voters disapprove of the way Obama is handling the economy. And, to confuse things, 45 percent of those voters think they are better off now than they were in 2009.
The poll, as Joe Scarborough said this morning, is likely to raise some eyebrows.
Consider those eyebrows raised.
When asked about the president’s 13-point lead, Bloomberg News editor Al Hunt expressed his doubts.
“I’m not sure about that, he said. “But I do believe the poll in the sense that if you look at it carefully what’s more interesting and important is if you look at both guys, they have real trouble. People don’t think Obama’s doing very well on the economy two-to-one. They think the country is headed off on the wrong track; they give him low grades on jobs, on trade with China and a whole host of things.
Hunt is quick to point out that things are no better for Romney. According to the poll, 55 percent view Romney as out of touch.
“Contrary to popular opinion, he has not come back from the primaries. His numbers are terrible. People don’t think he can create jobs; people think he’s out of touch and an elitist. They don’t seem to like him.”
Morning Joe and MSBNC regular, Ezra Klein weighed in on the poll this morning on his blog: “The poll is pretty clearly an outlier. The proper way to report this poll is not “Obama Holds Wide Lead Over Romney.” It’s that an outlier poll shows Obama with a wide lead, and it will be interesting to see if any subsequent polls reproduce its findings. We all know, theoretically, that the sampling polls do means that one in every 20 polls or so is very, very wrong. When that poll comes along, we shouldn’t report its findings as a fact about the world.” Bloomberg’s numbers are also quite different from the Wall Street Journal’s latest poll, which has the president leading 47 percent to 43 percent. What do you think about the poll?
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