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Okay, so I’m trying for a little balance in the headline of this piece. We Mitt Romney supporters have long said, “Sure, Mitt has low favorability ratings, but that’s because people don’t know him. Once people know him, they’ll like him.” Many have snickered at such reasoning and labeled it as the stuff false hopes are made of.
But according to the latest Rasmussen poll, released today, we may see a beginning point for this trend becoming reality. Last month in Scott’s poll, Romney’s favorability ratings were 29/35/35 (fav/unfav/dk). This month, after a lot of campaigning in early primary states, his numbers came back as 35/31/34.
Notice the percentage of people who don’t know who Mitt is remained steady at 34-35%, but over the same period of time, his favorables went up 6% and his unfavorables went down 4% – a swing of 10 points to the positive in one month. People who didn’t like Mitt last month, when he was just “the Mormon candidate”, now like him. And my prediction is we will see that trend continue as more people get to know him.
February 7th, 2007 at 2:17 pm
However this is ignoring the next step of the process, which is when they find out that Romney was an “independent during Reagan/Bush” and didn’t support the “Contract with America.” For instance, I was just talking to a friend of mine who called herself a Romney supporter, to no surprise of myself, I know many conservatives who are supporting Romney, but when I asked her about those two statements, she had no idea (that, however, was to my surprise) and she completely changed her mind.
That’s not to say he might not be able to overcome it, but I do expect a probable downturn, however temporary or permanent it may be, once not just conservatives, but just center-right Republicans learn of this information.
February 7th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
And my prediction is we will see that trend continue as more people get to know him.
Exactly. This is also why many people went to such lengths to dismiss him as “the mormon candidate” several months ago, and why there is such a large effort now to dismiss him as “the flip-flopping” candidate now. The best chance the other candidates had against Romney was before he came out of the gate.
February 7th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Steve,
Do you know which parts of the CWA Romney supported in 1994 and which parts he opposed? If you do, would you feel honest portraying him as a candidate who was against the entire thing?
Like anybody, Romney has potentially damaging stuff out there. Unlike everyone else, it’s largely confined to 13 years ago during a single debate.
February 7th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
Aw, murphy, stop with your personal accountability shtick. I read a blog where someone said they read that they knew someone who heard from someone whose sister lives in MA that Mitt was opposed to ALL of the contract, and furthermore, that Mitt thinks Newt is a fascist. Go check your facts.
February 7th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
[...] post by HeavyM and software by Elliott [...]
February 7th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
“Romney is solidly established in fourth place behind former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Senator John McCain (news, bio, voting record), and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.”
I do feel sorry for Romney, he does seem like a nice guy.
But I think this race is out of his league.
February 7th, 2007 at 7:45 pm
not only was he wrong about an issue 13 years ago, I also heard he was of Melrose Place.
I cant support someone who supported that trash back then. What next, did he own a Pontiac Fierro too.
How can we trust his judgement today?
February 8th, 2007 at 11:40 am
Every major poll I see shows Rudy with about 29%, McCain with about 25%, Gingrich with about 15% and Romney with about 10%.
That shows Romney solidly in 4th place.
That’s great and all, but NEWT ISNT RUNNING. The vast majority of his 15% will be going to the Romney camp…..thus, Romney in reality is polling in a solid 2nd place behind Rudy.
And the more people get to see/hear Romney, those #s will grow.
Mark my words.
February 8th, 2007 at 1:07 pm
[...] http://race42008.com/2007/02/07/to-know-him-is-to-think-favorably-of-him/ [...]
June 30th, 2009 at 3:36 am
check out this one……
Keep up the g00d work man!…