By Washington’s Blog [6]
While mainstream pundits desperately cling to their mantra that Ron Paul is “unelectable”, the numbers show a different story.
Gallup finds a record high-high 40% [7]
of all Americans now identify as independents. This is higher than the
31% of Americans who identify as Democrats and 27% as Republicans.
And which candidate do independents like?
According to a new CBS poll, they like Ron Paul.
As Forbes notes [8]:
In a head to head match up with incumbent President
Barack Obama, the indie voter chooses Ron Paul, a CBS News poll
suggested on Monday.
A total of 47% of independent voters said they would choose Ron Paul
compared to 45% of independent voters choosing Mitt Romney against
Obama, and 41% of independents saying they would choose Rick Santorum.
If a Paul-Obama showdown were ever to take place, 47% of independent
voters would vote for Paul, 81% republicans and 10% Democrats for a
total of 45% of the vote. Obama would get just 40% of the independent
vote in that contest, with 85% of the Democrats choosing Obama and 9% of
Republicans choosing the President on election day in November.
Admittedly, Forbes notes that – if the general election were held today – Romney could beat Obama, and Paul couldn’t:
Obama would win the general election by a narrow one point margin if the election was held today between the two.
However, Ron Paul is not the favorite among conservatives polled.
Romney is the leader there, getting 90% of the conservative vote,
followed by Texas governor Rick Perry at 85%. Ron Paul comes in tied
with Newt Gingrich at No. 4 with 81% of conservatives voting for that
particular candidate.
Romney is the only GOP candidate seen beating Obama in November by a two point margin, according to the poll. Paul is in second.
However, given that the CBS poll has a 3% margin of error [9], Romney and Paul are statistically tied in a match-up against Obama.
And Romney’s Gordon Gekko background [10]is just starting to get air time in this campaign. And watch this short video [11].
And while I don’t believe that anyone should be discriminated against
based upon their religion, the more protestants learn that Romney is a
Mormon, the less they like him [12].
So – despite the mainstream’s attempts to sideline Paul as
“unelectable” – I think that once the facts are aired, Paul would do
better against Obama than Romney.