Politics: Obama better watch out for “Generic Republican” in 2012
- However, it is a problem for Republicans that no actual Republican can approach the performance of the generic candidate, probably because the generic candidate is Rorschach blot that allows each respondent to create what amounts to their fantasy candidate.
- FiveThirtyEight blogger Nate Silver • Making a very astute point based on early polling for the 2012 presidential election. Essentially, while a “generic” Republican candidate can handily beat Obama right now, according to a compilation of polls he put together, no flesh-and-blood candidate can actually get close to that mark right now. The closest is Mitt Romney, who is less than six points behind. Sarah Palin, however, would be a wash, as she trails Obama by 14.4 points. Granted, it’s still very early (as Silver notes), and a lot can change, but that’s a fairly interesting signifying point. source
