There’s a new UT/Texas Trib poll of the Presidential race in Texas, and while most of it is about the Republican nomination, the bit that interests me as always is regarding the general election:
Perry would do better in a general election matchup against Democrat Barack Obama in a Texas vote held today, getting 45 percent of the votes to the president’s 37 percent. In that trial heat, 10 percent would vote for someone else and 8 percent “haven’t thought about it enough to have an opinion.” Cain would outpace Obama 40 percent to 35 percent. Paul got 38 percent to Obama’s 33 percent, and Romney got 36 percent to Obama’s 34 percent among the Texas voters.
The numbers get even worse for Obama among voters who say they are “extremely interested” in politics and public policy this year — a group that includes 53 percent of the respondents. Among that group, Obama loses to Perry by 19 percentage points, to Cain by 19, to Paul by 15, and to Romney by 12. Among those who are “somewhat interested” — a group that includes 35 percent of the respondents — Obama bests Perry by 4 points, Cain by 10, Paul by 6, and Romney by 11.
I wouldn’t make too big a deal about that implied “enthusiasm gap”, which was not explored in any further detail in the story. Hell, I’m only “somewhat interested” in “politics and public policy” this year because it’s been so deeply stupid thanks to the 2010 election results and the exceedingly tiresome GOP nomination campaign. It’s also been all about playing defense from my perspective, and there’s only so much of that one can take. Doesn’t mean I’m any less likely to vote, and as the authors do not venture into that territory, enough said about it.
The point I want to make is that the last poll result was had was in June from the Texas Lyceum, which showed Obama trailing 44-35 against a generic Republican, which as I pointed out was basically in line with 2008 polling from that time period. Here, what we see is Obama doing a little better than the generic polling when matched against specific Republicans; only Perry comes close to the generic result. This is generally consistent with national level polling, as well as polls from other states, in addition to being in line with the Lyceum result from June. In other words, nothing new to see here. Fine by me for now.
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