This is not shocking, and these numbers will change over time. But they are worth noting:
President Barack Obama does not deserve a second term, American voters say 49 – 43 percent, and he is in a statistical dead heat with possible Republican challengers Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today. President Obama leads Sarah Palin 48 – 40 percent. Romney, Huckabee, Palin and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich are bunched together when Republican voters are asked who they prefer for the GOP’s 2012 presidential nomination, the independent Quinnipiac University survey finds.
Democratic voters say 64 – 27 percent they do not want anyone to challenge President Obama for their party’s nomination in 2012. ”The Democratic base remains squarely behind President Barack Obama when it comes to his re-election, but his weakness among independent voters at this point makes his 2012 election prospects uncertain,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
A very big part of the 2012 debate will be the Republican challenger saying, on behalf of the American people, “You did not deliver what you promised.” That is what’s driving Obama’s numbers among independents. When your campaign platform is effectively, “immanentize the eschaton,” people expect to live in the eschaton within four years.