Politico reveals that
Obama is losing in the latest poll:
Mitt Romney edged out President Barack Obama 48 percent to 47 percent among likely voters,
a number well within the margin of error, as Republicans rapidly consolidate behind the likely GOP nominee.
Note the bolded portion. That's Politico doing their best to reassure liberals that this poll doesn't really mean what it does. And there's plenty more:
But there are suggestions that these numbers are extremely fluid: Obama holds double-digit leads over the presumptive Republican nominee on issues such as who will better handle foreign policy and who will stand up for the middle class and on “sharing your values.” But enduring concern about the economy — by far the most important issue to voters — keeps the president in a tenuous position despite employment numbers that show slight but steady improvement.
That's a rare sandwich; a paragraph that starts out reassuring liberals, but contains the bad news, and then attempts to reassure them on that point as well.
Oh, and get this:
The former Massachusetts governor has opened up a 10-point lead, 48 percent to 38 percent, among independents....A full 91 percent of Republicans support Romney, slightly exceeding the percentage of Democrats who support Obama.
So Romney leads among Republicans better than Obama does among Democrats, and also leads strongly among Independents, and yet Obama's really close? What does that mean, everyone? That the poll oversampled Democrats.
