Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s post-announcement vault to the top of the Republican field has been very impressive. The more Republicans here about him, the more Republicans appear eager to vote for him. But so far, the same can not be said of independents. While Perry bested former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney by 13 points in Public Policy Polling’s latest results, Romney fared much better against Obama than Perry did. Romney tied Obama according to PPP, but Perry was down by six points. PPP reports: “Romney does better than Perry because he holds Obama to only a nine-point advantage with independents, 48-39, and because he loses only 5% of the Republican vote to Obama where Perry loses 10%.”
A similar story can be found in a Mason-Dixon poll of Florida voters released yesterday. While Romney beats Obama by an outside-the-margin-of error 8 points, 51 to 43, Perry is in a statistical dead heat with Obama 46 to 45. Gallup recently produced similar, though not as dramatic results, nationally finding Romney ahead of Obama by 2 points, but Perry tied.
