What's New in the Polls today? Gingrich and Romney "Acceptable"

Republican voters consider Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney "acceptable".


From Pollingreport.com :

1. 62% of Republican-leaning voters consider Newt Gingrich "acceptable" as their candidate according to a Gallup poll conducted in late November-early December.  54% of those same Republican voters consider Mitt Romney "acceptable".  41% feel that Rick Perry is "acceptable", 37% feel that Michele Bachmann or Herman Cain are "acceptable".  34% would give a nod to Ron Paul, 28% to Jon Huntsman, and 27% to Rick Santorum. 
2. Obama is up in Gallup's Daily Tracking poll with a 43% approval rating.  He's been in the range of 40% to 44% approval since early November.  The range has gone up a few points since late summer.
3. The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index seems to have stalled at the -50 level (yes, that is a negative) over the past few weeks.  Over the past few years, the CCI was at its nadir in late 2008/early 2009 with a reading of -54.  It hit the negative 30's in early 2011, but then went back down.  So.. people are still pretty "uncomfortable".
4. From mid-October through late November, Ron Paul's favorability rating has been around 32 to 38% favorable; 34-35% unfavorable. 
5. From mid-October through late November, Mitt Romney's favorability rating has ranged from around 38% (now) up to 49% (mid October) and does seem to be decreasing.  His unfavorables  range from 35% to 38%.
6. From mid-October through late November, Newt Gingrich's favorability rating has ranged from 35 to 36%.  His unfavorables show more variation, from 39% up to 50%.
7. As of mid-November, 72% of people who lean Democrat want to renominate Obama as their candidate.  (This number has been fluctuating between 70 and 83% since early 2010.)  26% said find another candidate.
8. In terms of possible 2012 presidential matchups, Obama leads Gingrich 49 to 40%, and Romney, 45 to 44%.  Obama and Romney have been trading leads of 1 to 6% for a year now.
9. As of mid-November, 45% of people felt that Obama deserved to be re-elected, and 48% said that he did not deserve to be reelected.  
10. In a generic Congressional ballot, the Democrats are outpacing the Republicans by 1 to 4 percentage points.  In late October, 48% of the people said they would vote for the Democrat in their district in 2012, and 43% said they would vote for the Republicans.
11. The Democrats in Congress are getting 24 to 30% approval ratings in October through mid-November; the Republicans in Congress are getting 19 to 23% approval ratings in the same timeframe.
12. The overall Congressional approval rating averaged 11% in November.  To be fair, Congress has not received very good ratings in the last 6 years, which represents the available time frame of data at pollingreport.com . The highest ratings were in early 2007 and late 2005.  In both timeframes, Congress reached an approval rating into the low 40's%.  November 2011 has the lowest ratings, even lower than October 2011 ratings.
13. On the Supercommittee and its collapse:  53% of the country said they were following the Supercommittee "very closely" or "somewhat closely".  54% felt the committee members should have "compromised more".  24% blamed the Republicans for the collapse, 15% blamed the Democrats, 55% blamed both parties equally.