Obama clobbering Romney in Massachusetts

Massachusetts voters have conflicted feelings about Mitt Romney. On one hand they think he was a good Governor. 48% say he did a good job while in office to 40% who think he did a poor one. Independents give him good marks by a 56/35 margin, and 32% of Democrats think he was a good Governor. He has better numbers than Scott Brown on both of those fronts.

Although Bay State voters may like what Romney did as Governor, they don't care for him now. Only 37% have a favorable opinion of him to 57% with a negative one. His appeal to Democrats has basically vanished, to a 14/81 spread, and independents split against him by a 45/47 margin as well.

While Romney is becoming less popular in Massachusetts, Barack Obama's numbers there are on the rise. 57% of voters now approve of him to 38% who disapprove. That +19 spread is up 15 points from when we last polled the state in September when he was at 49/45. In a head to head between the two Obama leads Romney 58-35, a margin almost matching his 26 point margin of victory over John McCain in the state in 2008. Most notably Obama is winning over more Republicans (11%) than Romney is Democrats (7%).

Romney might not make Massachusetts competitive, but he at least does better than any of his fellow candidates. Ron Paul comes the next closest to Obama but still trails by 28 points at 58-30. Rick Santorum faces a 32 point deficit at 61-29, and Newt Gingrich does the worst of the Republicans with a 34 point gap at 62-28.

Gingrich wins the dubious honor of having the worst favorability numbers we've seen for any candidate in any state, with only 17% rating him favorably to 75% with a negative opinion. He's at 27/63 with Republicans, 22/68 with independents, and 8/87 with Democrats.

Full results here

Comments

[George]

Why am I not surprised? Next week if you do Nebraska you will show Romney clobbering Obama!

[Stan Preftokis]

George...Romney was Governor of Massachusetts, that's why it's important. If Romney was viewed more favorably than Obama in Illinois, then you'd have a story.

Nebraska has 5 electoral votes, Massachusetts has 12.

[Tom Johnson]

Btw, earlier wasn't someone griping that this poll oversampled Democrats?

Hate to break this to you, but this poll corresponds almost exactly with the exit poll from 2008: 43% Dem/ 17% Rep/ 40% Ind.

This poll is 41% Dem/ 14% Rep/ 45% Ind

[Obama 2012]

Good sign that Mr. Etch A Sketch doesn't do that well with voters who know him best.