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Over seven in 10 Obama voters, and 55 percent of Democrats, regret voting for President Obama's reelection in 2012, according to a newEconomist/YouGov.com poll.
Conducted to test the media hype about a comeback by 2012 Republican presidential nomineeMitt Romney, the new poll found voters still uninspired by Romney, but also deeply dissatisfied with Obama who has so far failed to capitalize on his victory over 15 months ago.
The poll asked those who voted for Obama's reelection a simple question: “Do you regret voting for Barack Obama?”
— Overall, 71 percent said yes, 26 percent no.
— 80 percent of whites said yes, 61 percent of blacks said no and 100 percent of Hispanics said yes.
— 84 percent of women said yes, and just 61 percent of men agreed.
— 55 percent of Democrats said yes, as did 71 percent of independents.
Still, given the choice of Obama versus Romney, Obama supporters said they would stick with their guy, 79 percent to 10 percent for Romney.
But his voters seem to have moved on and are ready for the next election, giving Obama very early lame duck status before the midterm elections. The poll, for example, found that Hillary Clintonhas a higher favorability rating than the president. While Obama is underwater in his ratings, Clinton is buoyed by a 50-percent favorable to 43-percent unfavorable rating, with a sizable 28 percent rating her “very favorable.”
As for Romney, his favorable ratings have dropped, but he would edge Obama by about three million votes, probably because Americans are not wowed by Obama's second term performance, not because they like Romney more.
Said the poll: “In YouGov research conducted from February 6th-7th, we went about it in a slightly different way, asking people who voted for Mitt Romney or Barack Obama whether they would do it again. We found an ostensibly similar picture: 90 percent of people who voted for Romney would do it again, compared to only 79 percent of Obama voters who would.
“Clearly Romney fares better, although he had fewer voters to begin with. As a proportion of the voters each of them actually received in 2012 (66 million for Obama and 61 million for Romney), the GOP candidate ends up with 55 million votes retained to Obama’s 52 million. Not exactly a wipeout. It’s also unclear for any poll that hypothetically revisits 2012 how much it says about renewed hope for Mitt Romney — who has notably been liberated from the scrutiny of a presidential campaign — rather than about dissatisfaction with an incumbent president who has spent the last year defending his administration over leaks, scandals and Obamacare roll-outs.”
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted atpbedard@washingtonexaminer.com.
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