Thursday, December 1, 2011

Rasmussen or PPP?

Two polls, two different results.

Rasmussen released an interesting poll the other day that showed Newt Gingrich outpolling Barack Obama 45-43 in a hypothetical general election matchup. That would seem to be relatively good news for Gingrich.

However, PPP, which released a poll showing Gingrich with a huge lead in the Florida GOP primary, also has polling on the general in Florida. Those numbers tell a very different story. Based on PPP, Gingrich falls six points behind Obama, 44-50. (Mitt Romney, on the other hand, is within the margin of error against Obama, 44-45.)

It would seem that a GOP candidate that far behind Obama in Florida on election day would have a hard time winning a national majority. The last Republican to win the White House and lose Florida was Calvin Coolidge in 1924.

So which is right---PPP or Rasmussen? Time, and more polling, will tell.