The new CBS News/New York Times poll which came out in the morning, shows pro-life Mitt Romney and pro-abortion Barack Obama deadlocked at 46%. For reasons best known to these news outlets, the "internals" were not released until later. What do we see?
Long-term, by far the most important consideration is found in the headline of a CBS News story: "Poll reveals gap between married and single women" and one sentence by Jan Crawford: "A month ago, President Obama had an 11-point lead over Mitt Romney among women voters. Today's poll, taken after Hillary Rosen's comments and the subsequent firestorm, puts the gap at six points."
It is true that Romney trails among ALL women just as he leads among men. But Mr. Romney actually is running ahead among married women, 49% to 42% while Obama has a large lead among single women, 62% to 34%.
Crawford's story has one other piece of particularly chilling news for President Obama.
"The poll also shows that Romney has a real opportunity to introduce/define himself with voters–or Obama campaign has an opening to do that for him. Despite the tough Republican primary, 37 percent of voters say they are undecided or need to know more about Romney before expressing a view on him.
"On the other hand, voters know the incumbent–only 13 percent say they're undecided or need to know more on President Obama. Of those who have a view, 45 percent now view the President unfavorably, compared to 34 percent with an unfavorable view of Romney."
Romney leads in two polls– Gallup and Rasmussen—by 2 points and 4 points, respectively. The two that Obama is ahead in—CNN by 9 points and Reuters by 4 points—have huge flaws. All this while (a) Republicans presidential candidates harshly criticized one another and Mr. Obama faced no primary challenge; and (b) Mr. Obama's support among Independents continues to sink by the week.
Contact: Dave Andrusko
Source: National Right to Life
