Perry Pulls 25/61 Favorability Poll - Now Lower Than Ron Paul

Perry Pulls 22/63 Favorability Poll - Now Lower Than Ron Paul

Fund Raising Said To Be “Drying Up”



By Dell Hill

Apparently the likely voters have seen and heard enough of Texas Governor Rick Perry.  The last Rasmussen poll of likely voters left Perry with a dismal 25% favorable and 61% with an unfavorable rating for the Republican presidential candidate after successive poor showings in televised debates. Among those who identified themselves as Independents, the numbers are slightly worse - 22/63.

AllahPundit at Hot Air takes a closer look.

“Nice big sample of 1,000 likely voters. To put this in perspective, Palin’s favorable numbers have been cited for the past two years as proof that she couldn’t get elected — and Perry’s numbers here are worse than hers were in nearly every poll that’s ever been taken on her. Among independents (whom Rasmussen polls as “others” when asking about party), he’s at 22/63. I’m mystified. He’s been dreadful in the debates and he messed up badly with his crack about the heartlessness of denying in-state tuition to illegals, but he’s a likable enough guy. Even Ron Paul manages 35/50 in this poll and he has tons of detractors in the mainstream of both parties. And the worst part for Perry is that Ras’s poll was taken on Wednesday and Thursday of this week, after a full day of the brain fart heard ’round the world airing nonstop on cable news. If there was going to be a sympathy bump for him, we’d be seeing it here. Instead, the guy’s radioactive. What happened?”

Two words - The Debates.

Perry is obviously not a strong debate specialist and it would seem reasonable to conclude that he went from strong contender to suspect contender after stumbling out of the blocks on the televised debates.  His supporters urged everyone to discount his debate flaws and look at what he’s done for the State of Texas over the past decade.  Fair enough.  They did so, but when the stumble became a bumble - when he couldn’t remember the third federal agency he’d close down - that was undoubtedly the last straw, especially for the Independents polled.

Word also has it that Perry’s fund raising has slowed dramatically.  He’s made a major ad buy for this week in hopes of revitalizing his campaign, but with polling numbers like this it will be extremely difficult from here on out.