A new poll from Public Policy Polling (D) shows President Obama up over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney nationally, 48 – 44, a closer contest than PPP’s numbers from February, which showed Obama up 49 – 42. “The main difference is that Romney is now taking 15% of the Democratic vote, up from 10% he was getting a month ago,” PPP pollster Tom Jensen writes.
Obama takes more independent voters, but neither men have locked down their bases in the national data. Obama gets only 79 percent of Democrats, while Romney sees 78 percent of Republicans, while Obama takes 14 percent of GOP voters and Romney has made the aforementioned inroads with 15 percent of Dems. Unaffiliated voters in the middle end up making up the difference. Obama’s lead can also partially be attributed to women voters, as he does nine points better among that voting bloc versus the only two point advantage that Romney has with men. From PPP:
The reason Obama continues to do so well, despite voters being split on his job performance (48% both approving and disapproving), is that the Republicans are so strongly disliked. Santorum is the most “popular,” but only 36% have a favorable impression of him, and 53% an unfavorable one. That is down from 39-46 in February. Romney sits at 33-58, Paul at 30-58, and Gingrich at 28-61. Obama ties Paul with independents but leads Romney by six, Santorum by eight, and Gingrich by 15.
The TPM Poll Average has showed President Obama ahead in a national matchup against Romney for most of the last three months.
