Why are Mitt Romney's favorables rising?
Mitt Romney鈥檚 reputation with US voters appears to be on the rise. That鈥檚 the implication of a , anyway, which shows that Mr. Romney鈥檚 favorable rating has jumped from 34 percent in February to 48 percent today.
Forty two percent of respondents to the CNN/ORC International survey say they have an unfavorable view of the presumptive GOP nominee. And President Obama still leads Romney in this particular rating race 鈥� his favorability number is 56 percent.
But voters鈥� views of Romney are becoming more positive at a time when the Obama campaign is doing its best to define him in a negative light. Attacks on Romney鈥檚 record at Bain Capital filled the political blogosphere there for a few weeks. Now the Obama camp is hitting Romney鈥檚 record at Massachusetts governor. What鈥檚 going on? After all, this CNN poll isn鈥檛 alone 鈥� as we pointed out last week, a Gallup survey now has him at a 50 percent favorable rating.
聽How can Romney鈥檚 favorable rise in the face of concerted attack?
For one thing, it鈥檚 mostly people who are intensely interested in politics who are paying attention to the campaign at this early stage. Polls show that in general only a minority of voters follow the political kerfuffles of the day 鈥� such as whether Romney should repudiate supporter Donald Trump for saying Mr. Obama wasn鈥檛 born in the US.
At this stage in the race (OK, maybe at all stages of the race) larger underlying forces are driving voter attitudes. What鈥檚 happening now could be the general rallying-around effect that occurs when a candidate wins a nomination.
Presidential candidates typically get a spike in their favorability ratings in the wake of winning the nomination,鈥� recently.
But campaigns just gotta campaign, and in coming weeks we鈥檙e still going to see what the people involved believe to be a bare-knuckle battle over Romney鈥檚 and Obama鈥檚 reputations.
That means more dueling rallies such as occurred last week, when Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod held a press conference in Boston to attack Romney鈥檚 Massachusetts record, and Romney held an event in front of the shuttered Solyndra solar plant, which went under despite large government loan guarantees.
Of course, both sides claimed that they were the ones highlighting real issues, while the other guys were just making noise and cheap points.
