(Newser)
–
The Supreme Court ruling on ObamaCare, the shooting at the Aurora theater, the Bain Capital debate, and a mediocre jobs report have hit the headlines in the last 30 days, but none of it seems to be having much of an effect on the presidential polls. President Obama is up six percentage points over Mitt Romney in the latest NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll, a small increase from last month when he had a three-point lead. In 12 battleground states, Obama's lead is eight points, the same as last month. "So much has happened, and so little has changed," said a Democratic pollster.
One thing both candidates have in common is that their very negative numbers are both rising. In fact, people say the more they learn about both candidates, the more they don't like either one of them. Obama's favorable/unfavorable ratings are now 49%-43%, down a bit from June's 47%-38%; while Romney's are 35%-40%, a tick better than last month's 33%-39%. But that does give Romney a rare net negative favorable/unfavorable number before the party convention, a feat that no modern GOP candidate has ever had. "These are numbers you usually see in October," said a Republican analyst. "It does speak to the growing polarization of the campaign."
