Republican Pollsters Cite Doubts About Obama's Performance
April 26, 2012--Resurgent Republic, a group of top Republican pollsters, held a breakfast with reporters to discuss the findings of a recent series of focus groups of "Obama Independents."  Summarizing the findings, honorary chairman Haley Barbour stated, "The more facts they [voters] know, they less likely they are to be for Obama." 
Resurgent Republic's Target Voter Series comprised 24 focus groups of voters who supported Obama in 2008.  The focus groups were conducted between late February and  early April in 11 battleground states and drew people from six key demographic groups—suburban women, young voters, seniors, independents, Hispanics and blue collar Catholics.  The 24 focus groups totaled about 50 hours of discussion. 

According to the pollsters, the focus groups showed that while Obama fares well in personal likeability, the down state of the economy, energy costs, and a range of statistics on everything from debt to home values are starting to raise doubts among some of the voters in these groups.  The pollsters pointed to questions focus group participants raised about leadership ability and whether Obama was "in over his head" and "has he delivered what he promised."  Goeas, for example, cited a focus group participant who said Obama "talks a good game, but I'm not seeing results."  Speaking of young voters, Ed Goeas, president and CEO of The Tarrance Group, said that, "No candidate will be able to run on hope and change with this group."

Although it is still relatively early in the campaign (Barbour noted, "A lot of these poeple don't think the campaign's started yet"), the lines for the general election battle are being drawn right now.  Indeed Goeas stated "The next 30 days are going to be the most important 30 days on the framing of this campaign."
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"Resurgent Republic is a 501(c)(4) organization dedicated to shaping the debate over the proper role of government. We are an independent, not-for-profit organization modeled on Democracy Corps, which has made important contributions to the public debate from the left and has proven to be a valuable resource for labor unions, environmentalists, and liberal Congressional leaders."

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