All we heard after the vice presidential debate last Thursday night was how much good the cackling, slightly unbalanced Joe Biden had done for an Obama campaign that had been rocked by Mitt Romney’s overwhelming performance in the first presidential debate. Well, now we know that just isn’t the case. Since the debate, Gallup shows Romney moving from a two-point lead to a six-point lead. Today, Romney beats the president 51-45%.
State polls, which are always lagging indicators, have also shown movement towards Mitt Romney. Absolutely nothing we’ve seen in those numbers indicates that Joe Biden’s classless, childish, buffoonish debate performance did anything other than to ensure Mitt Romney’s momentum kept right on keeping on.
It’s worth noting that today’s Rasmussen poll only shows Romney up one, 49-48%. One possible explanation comes from NumbersMuncher, a smart poll analyst on the Twitter-nets. The thinking is that Gallup might be picking up an increase in Republican enthusiasm that Rasmussen isn’t. Rasmussen weights his polls with a D+5 sample. That’s a perfectly reasonable skew, but as Republicans come closer to the realization that we might actually have a chance at firing President FalureTeleprompter, Rasmussen might want to have another look.
The only question now is what Obama’s frantic performance at last night’s debate might have done for enthusiasm on his side. If the media focus groups are any indicator, I would say not a whole lot as far as undecideds, who seemed more inclined to move towards Romney. As far as rank-and-file Democrats, they seem more relieved today than elated.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC