Today, the George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management (GSPM) released the 12th installment of its weekly Horse Race poll, which found that Gov. Mitt Romney bested President Barack Obama for the fourth week in a row.
Full survey results for the week ending Sunday, Oct. 28, are as follows:
Rate the prior week's performance (1 -- Very Ineffective, 5 -- Very Effective)
Mitt Romney's PERSONAL PERFORMANCE as a presidential candidate: 3.72
Barack Obama's PERSONAL PERFORMANCE as a presidential candidate: 3.15
Mitt Romney's presidential CAMPAIGN OPERATION: 3.75
Barack Obama's presidential CAMPAIGN OPERATION: 3.34
Which presidential campaign "won" the previous week?
Romney Campaign: 49 percent
Obama Campaign: 29 percent
Neither: 14 percent
Both: 6 percent
Don't Know: 2 percent
As you see it, what was the pivotal moment of the campaign in the previous week (please describe in your own words)?
Select Comments
Democrat Insider: "The final debate -- and Romney's invisible performance -- officially ended any momentum that Romney had in the race. It now appears that things have stabilized -- but with a small but effective lead for Obama."
Republican Insider: "Romney is talking about the next four years and big issues. Obama is talking about small things and flailing away at his opponent in a most unbecoming manner for an incumbent President."
Democrat Insider: "Obama has recovered much of his previously lost female support. This, along with continued strong Latino support in key states is bringing Romney's surge to a halt."
Republican Insider: "Growing reports that the initial Libya story was a cover-up."
What advice would you give either of the presidential campaign's based on the performance of last week (please indicate either OBAMA or ROMNEY at the beginning of your answer)?
Select Comments
Democrat Insider: OBAMA -- "Keep up the pressure. Keep building the enthusiasm among your supporters."
Republican Insider: ROMNEY -- "Press the diplomatic failures of the Obama administration."
Democrat Insider: OBAMA -- "Focus on early voting initiatives and voter turnout -- demonstrate strong and effective leadership in dealing with Sandy."
Republican Insider: BOTH -- "For both camps, while you need to focus on the key issues (primarily economy), you need to ensure your answers indicate you're listening, and ANSWER THE QUESTION! There's a lot of derision out there online because both candidates are so on message they seem to be robotic at times. Act like a human being and answer the question!"
Independent Insider: ROMNEY -- "Romney should continue to play it safe. Keep insinuating a distrustful administration especially with Benghazi and have him quietly ask people like Donald Trump to keep his mouth shut."
The GSPM Horse Race is an aggregated, weekly measure of the opinions of graduate students, alumni, full-time faculty and adjunct professors at GSPM. The results are not intended to be representative of any larger population. The responses have been weighted to ensure that they are balanced politically, by equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans. The comments provided are from survey participants. The survey results are released weekly and are available at gspm.gwu.edu.