Here's a chart you won't see anywhere in the mainstream media - not the right, and certainly not the left. According to Rasmussen's 2012 Presidential Election Matchups [5], which pit Obama against any of the four GOP presidential candidates, while the balance of challengers certainly appear to have no chance of defeating the incumbent (something we touched upon yesterday [6]), today, for the first time, Ron Paul has managed to unseat the standing president, by a thin margin of 43 to 41, for the first time in this series.
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Source: Rasmussen Reports [5](premium subscription required)
On the survey methodology: "Surveys covering three days are of 1,500 Likely Voters and Surveys of Two Days are of 1,000 Likely Voters. All Surveys Have a Margin of Error of +/- 3% ."
Some more from today's Rasmussen blog [8]:
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 25% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Forty percent (40%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -15 (see trends).
Just 19% favor increased U.S. involvement in Syria. The Obama administration receives mixed reviews for handling that situation to date.
On the energy front, 58% believe that free market competition is the best way to get gas prices down. Just 27% think government regulations are a better approach. However, 67% believe that oil companies are using bad news to gouge customers.
In a possible 2012 matchup, Mitt Romney earns 45% of the vote, while the president attracts 44%. If Rick Santorum is the Republican nominee, the president leads by three, 46% to 43%. Matchup results are updated daily at 9:30 a.m. Eastern
What is oddly missing is that Ron Paul earns 43% of the vote, to Obama's 41%.
So on one hand Ron Paul defeats the president head to head, and on the other, the GOP itself tells us he is a distant third to two frontrunners who frankly make one question the sanity of every American voter?