As the clock begins to wind down on the crazy spectacle that is a US Presidential Election, people are turning to the polls and trying to determine which candidate has the upper hand when Americans walk into the election booth to cast their ballots. Two of the statistics that are being analyzed include voter enthusiasm and candidate favorable ratings. However, when going from poll to poll these numbers can start to get confusing and it seems like each candidate has an advantage is one particular category.
This election season started out with a rallying cry from Republican’s wanting to ensure that Obama only served one term. The latest Gallup poll showed the widest gap of Republican vs. Democrat enthusiasm for the 2012 election cycle with Republican polling 51% enthusiasm for the November elections compared to 31% for Democrats. However this contradicts a CNN and Opinion Research Poll that showed Democrats ahead of Republican’s in enthusiasm 59-51%. While variations in questions may account for some of the discrepancy, some may come from Republican’s continued reluctance to thoroughly embrace Mitt Romney.
When asked about enthusiasm for individual candidates a Washington-Post poll showed that Democrats had the advantage 48% for Obama only 34% of Republican’s could say the same for Romney. Republican’s are still on the fence on whether or not Romney truly the candidate with conservative values or if he can relate enough to the middle class. Both parties have separate reasons to be enthusiastic, overall enthusiasm for the election is down from 2008. We only have months left to see which is a larger motivator in the November elections, individual candidate appeal, or disdain for another candidate.
