Former presidential adviser Karl Rove says a Washington Post-ABC News poll that shows President Barack Obama’s numbers slipping does not bode well for his 2012 re-election chances.
Rove also told Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly Tuesday that he can’t understand why the House Democratic leadership doesn’t tell Rep. Anthony Weiner, R-N.Y., to resign.
Rove said he is surprised that Obama “is at this point behind a Republican candidate for president among registered voters and . . . among people who are not anywhere near as well known as the president. The president is basically 50 percent against all the likely Republican first-tier candidates. That’s not a good place for the president to be.
“Who knows who Tim Pawlenty is? Not that many people. Who knows who John Huntsman Jr. is not that many people,” Rove said. “And for the president to be stuck . . . three years into the term in office . . . at 50 percent is not a good sign.”
According to the poll, Obama and GOP candidate Mitt Romney are knotted at 47 percent each, and among registered voters, the former Massachusetts governor is numerically ahead, 49 percent to 46 percent. Romney emerges in the new survey as the strongest current or prospective Republican candidates in the 2012 presidential field.
As to Weiner, who confessed Monday to sending lewd photos to women via his Twitter account, Rove said he doesn’t understand why House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has not told him to resign.
O’Reilly asked how much damage is the Democratic Party sustaining from the Weiner situation.
“Well [it's] not helping them — and in fact, it mystifies me,” Rove said. “I don’t understand why Nancy Pelosi didn’t say to Congressman Weiner time for you to go.”
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