Public Policy Polling rolled out a new national poll that has some pretty encouraging signs for President Obama. He's now up to an 11-point lead nationally over Rick Perry, 52 percent to 41 percent. By comparison, last month Obama only had a six-point lead over Governor Goodhair. He's also broken the tie he had with Mitt Romney in last month's poll, and now leads him 49-45.
PPP puts it pretty bluntly--Perry's claims that Social Security is unconstitutional aren't going over very well.
“In just three weeks Barack Obama has nearly doubled his lead over Rick Perry,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “That would seem to be an indication that Perry’s comments about Social Security are giving him trouble with swing voters.”
The internals bear this out--only 10 percent of those polled want to scrap Social Security, and only 20 percent think it's a Ponzi scheme. Even more staggering, only 39 percent of Republicans think it's a Ponzi scheme. Not coincidentally, 50 percent have an unfavorable view of Perry; when he got into the race last month he had a 47 percent unfavorable rating. The obvious conclusion--Perry's attempts to walk back his statements on Social Security aren't working.
Something else that should give Perry pause--the moderates hate him. Specifically, 58 percent have an unfavorable view of him, and a whopping 70 percent would vote for Obama in a head-to-head matchup.
If I'm a Republican, considering that PPP has recently acquired a reputation for being bang-on with its polling, these numbers have to make me nervous. Poll after poll shows Obama's approvals sagging. And yet, he's lapping the Republican frontrunner by 11 and is almost at the magic 50 percent against the only Repub who has a realistic chance of beating him.