The number of general election voters who have a negative view of Rick Perry has jumped 9 points since the last GOP presidential debate on Sept. 7, according to Nate Silver at The New York Times’ Five Thirty Eight blog. Meanwhile, Perry’s average lead over Mitt Romney in polls has fallen by 3 percent, and he’s dropped four points in a hypothetical match-up against President Barack Obama. Experts say Perry’s campaign could be in trouble if he has another shaky performance tonight in Florida.
The one thing that most notably stands out is that the poll numbers used BEFORE the debate are from different pollsters than the ones AFTER the debate. That likely would result in serious inconsistency. (In other words, these aren’t the same polls, so there can be no reasonable comparison between the BEFORE and AFTER ratings. Any conclusions drawn from this data would be meaningless.) Either way, if there truly is a downward trend in Mr. Perry’s ratings, let’s hope it continues.
Perhaps Rick’s Prayer-a-thons are working after all.