Public Policy Polling‘s Tom Jensen assesses the perils of an Obama endorsement:
Democrats are going to have to think really carefully about how they deploy Barack Obama for campaigning this fall. Polls we’ve conducted nationally and in several different states over the last few weeks have found that a candidate being endorsed by Obama is much more likely to elicit a negative response from Republican voters than a positive one from Democrats.
PPP’s most recent national survey found that while Obama had a positive approval rating at 48/47, only 33 percent of voters were more likely to vote for a candidate endorsed by him while 48 percent said support from Obama would make them less likely to vote for someone. That’s because only 64 percent of voters who approve of the President say his endorsement would make them more inclined to vote for a candidate, but 91 percent who disapprove say Obama’s support makes it less likely they would vote for one of his preferred candidates.
