Posted on 08/29/2012 6:45:25 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
TAMPA, Fla. — The Republicans who are assembled here have been told time and time again that Barack Obama's great advantage over Mitt Romney is likability.
And many of the 15,000 or so journalists who endured the gusts of rain on Monday and groaned in the sun on the 1.5-mile walk from the nearest parking lot to the metal detectors outside the convention press center have been writing and sound-biting that the chief task of the Romney campaign is to introduce Romney's personal background and character to the public to improve his favorability ratings.
Both talking points are true, but only (in an old journalistic phrase) up to a point.
The latest ABC/Washington Post poll, for example, reported that when asked which of the two candidates was more likable, 61% picked Obama and only 27% said Romney. That looks like a huge advantage.
But when you look at what pollsters call their favorable/unfavorables, the contrast is much less distinct. Obama's balance in the Real Clear Politics average of recent polls is 49% favorable, 45% unfavorable.
Romney's are 43% favorable, 43% unfavorable. Weaker, but not a whole lot. A successful convention could put Romney's numbers up around Obama's, or higher — just Team Obama's campaigning seems to have weighed his down.
As for likability, it's more important in some elections than in others. Bob Grady, who worked on George H.W. Bush's 1988 campaign, tells how Bush turned a deficit going into the conventions into a lead in the polls.
Focus groups tested the response to speeches by Bush and his opponent, Michael Dukakis. Dukakis came out ahead. But when the focus groups were shown a generic TV newscaster type reading the two texts, the Bush message was the winner.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
I’m just puzzled, and I do mean this sincerely without trying to denigrate him at all, exactly what is it about Obama that makes him likable?
I keep reading about this so called, likability time and again, but don’t really see anything there...
He's a spoiled brat baby boy who's never had to do a day's work in his life.
He's petulant, abrasive and arrogant!
I remember them saying the same thing about Clinton...
Agree - come down to the essentials, it’s not about likability. Hey, folks, we’re not electing a high school prom king!
Same here.
Since most people don’t like being unemployed I doubt Obama’s likeability factor is as high as the media believes. In fact the groups (young people trying to enter the workforce and minorities) who supposedly liked him so much the first time around are the ones most affected by his failure to turn the economy around. They aren’t going to fall for it again. The may not vote GOP but they will probably just stay home, which is as good as a vote.
Yeah, well, you see, he’s got this big smile and waves a lot... (sarc off)
My Aunt lost her sight over 60 years ago due to Glaucoma, and she calls em like she hears em.
What is so likeable about him? I couldn't stand him from the start. He is a phony. Just like Carter whom I also didn't vote for.
My first vote was for Gerald Ford and I didn't really like him either -- but I realized he wasn't as bad as Carter.
Whatever my many bad points, at least I never voted to put the country in danger as many others did in 75 and 2008.
Plus, I don't like 0bama because he may be a closet muslim, closet homosexual or a closet Kenyan. Who really knows?
5.56mm
"...one may smile, and smile, and be a villain." - Hamlet
Well actually we'd better be doing just that... Electing former prom king Ryan to VP!!! Certainly better than their lead candidate's pot king crown.
Obama has all the characteristics of a man I would not like, or speak with. I am NOT talking about his skin color. He just seems so self-absorbed and creepy.
I never understood this likability thing for Obama. I find him offputting — arrogant, haughty, petulant, extremely partisan, not very glib without a teleprompter, insincere and phony. And no, it has nothing to do with race, although I imagine the reason a lot of people say he is likable may that they don’t want to be thought of as racist.
Condi rocked the house tonight. what an plus she is ..I think we all understand the importance of why Obama must go .
The media makes people feel GUILTY if you do not like Barry because then you must not like him because you are a racist.
I don't like Barry because he is typical elitist condescending Ivy League educated law professor who was trained as a Chicago machine politician and collected friends like Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers.
Black has nothing to do with it just as being Jewish has nothing to do with my dislike of Rahm Emmanuel, Irish catholic has nothing to do with my dislike of the Kennedys and Mormon has nothing to do with my dislike of Mittens.
I do not find condescending elitists who cannot connect with the working middle class likeable.
Since Ronald Reagan left office, there has not been much to like because the nation has become morally and fiscally bankrupt by elitists of both parties who are globalists and like big government even if it destroys the working middle class.
People liked him, they just thought he sucked as President.<[> Likeability is a nonsensical base to hang electoral hopes on. But when, like the Democrats, your candidates are bereft of ideas or solutions, "Likeability" apparently is all they have left.
Likability?
Likability????
He’s an obnoxious, self-obsessive, ethically challenged, wasteful, socialist, lying phony, for crying out loud.
There’s NOTHING to like!
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