Dumb CNN Poll? Romney Beats Obama

On July 27, CNN released the results of a head-to-head poll indicating that, if an election were held today, Romney would beat Obama by 53% to 44%.  This was a big change from the actual Obama win of 51% to 47% in the 2012 presidential election.  Immediately, the supporters of the President jumped all over this poll as being stupid and immaterial because there is no way that the 2012 election will ever be rerun.  Nor, is there any way that Romney's imagined performance could be judged against the actual crises that Obama is being forced to handle at this particular juncture in his second term.

But, the focus on the Romney portion of the poll is a diversion away from something else it also reveals.  In a head-to-head Romney versus Hillary contest, Hillary beat Romney 55% to 42%.  Whether or not this gives some insight into the 2016 election, should both Hillary and Romney decide to run, is anyone's guess.  What it does show, through deductive reasoning, is that Obama loses significantly to both Romney and Hillary.  Obviously, if Romney beats Obama and Hillary beats Romney, we can also assume that Hillary would beat Obama and, a result, it reveals that Obama, today, would lose against two past competitors.  That speaks volumes about the poor opinion that Americans now have about the President's performance. In other words, buyer's remorse. For that reason, the poll is not dumb, but  fairly enlightening; especially when you consider that Obama can't beat a fellow Democrat.

References:

CNN Poll: Romney tops Obama but loses to Clinton: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/07/27/cnn-poll-romney-tops-obama-but-loses-to-clinton/

Washington Post: Mitt Romney leads President Obama — and other ‘dumb’ polls: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/07/28/romney-leads-obama-and-other-dumb-polls-that-are-still-interesting/