thedailywhat:

President of the Day: A brand new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll released today predicts that if the elections were held today, Rick Santorum — the presidential candidate who believes that pregnant rape victims should make the best of it, that free prenatal testing leads to more abortions, and that, contrary to the Constitution, the separation of church and state should not be absolute — would defeat President Obama by three percentage points.

Against Mitt Romney, Obama comes out even at 47% all.

Interestingly, both Obama and Romney are apparently being dragged down by the same thing: Universal health care.

“If they used Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts health care program as a guideline for the Obamacare thing, what’s the difference?” asks 37-year-old Sanford, NC resident Robert Hargrove.

Lynn West, a retired New Hampshire state education official who says the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has been “fabulous” for her family, has a suggestion for Obama’s campaign on how to strengthen the president’s flagging numbers.

“If I had to fault President Obama or the people that help him put out his message, I think they need to be simpler,” says West. “A lot of times it’s the catch phrases that catch fire, like when he said, ‘Yes we can’ in the 2008 campaign. That’s why the term ‘Obamacare’ has worked — a simple phrase, and they’ve been able to put a negative connotation to it. In fact, they ought to be saying, ‘Obamacare! Let’s rejoice!’”

A silver lining, perhaps: According to the latest poll of battleground states conducted by Politico and George Washington University, Obama’s approval rating has increased by 5 percentage points to 53. Mitt Romney’s approval rating stands at 43, while Rick Santorum is in third place with 42.

[usatoday / politico / dailybeast.]

(via sarah-bartowski)