WSJ/NBC poll: Gay marriage a wash for now
By MAGGIE HABERMAN |
5/22/12 1:33 PM EDT
VIa NBC's Mark Murray:
Two weeks after President Obama announced he supports gay marriage, a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows that his announcement — politically — looks to be a wash.
In the poll, a combined 17 percent says it makes them "much more likely" or "somewhat more likely" they will vote for him. That's compared with a combined 20 percent who say the announcement will make them more likely to vote for Mitt Romney, who opposes gay marriage.
Perhaps more importantly, 62 percent say the president's support for gay marriage doesn't make a difference in their vote — including 75 percent of independents, 76 percent of moderates, 81 percent of African Americans, and 65 percent of residents in the Midwest who say that.
"From my distance, it looks more like a voting draw than anything else," says Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart, who conducted the survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff.
It's not clear that this is where people will be by Election Day on the issue. But it's worth remembering that the other metric that matters for Obama on this is the one in the recent NYT/CBS poll, where 67 percent of voters viewed Obama's coments as political.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/
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