A new NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll highlights some of Mitt Romney’s biggest weaknesses, and the voting blocs that could deliver the President a victory in November. The poll finds President Obama holds a lead of 34-points among Hispanics, 15-points among women and 22-points among young voters. Over the next few months leading up to the convention, we’ll keep an eye on whether he’s able to hold these tremendous margins.
The poll also found the President has an 8-point edge among independents. Of the Republican primary candidates in the running this year, Romney may perhaps be the best suited to attract independents. The more moderate stances Romney held as Governor — on gun rights and abortion, for instance — may have given some voters the impression that a President Romney would govern closer to the center than candidate Romney. Richard Cohen’s latest article in the Washington Post argues the contrary: “The forces that shaped [Romney] in the primaries and caucuses will not go away. He has been clay in the hands of the political right, and this will not change… Weakness is his one consistency.”
A sliver of independents in swing states will undoubtedly choose the next President. Peter Hart, one of the pollsters who conducted the new poll, invoked Winston Churchill, saying, “Never will so much money be spent to persuade so few.”
Joshua Chaffee