Wrapping up the WRAL poll

When I first looked at the WRAL poll last night I didn't think it was very interesting but I guess since I'm on my third post about it now I must have found it more interesting than I initially thought!

It shows Elizabeth Dole with a 56% favorable rating. This is the second month in a row that's been up in the mid-50s, and Rasmussen is the only polling company showing that.

I think there must be a difference in voters' minds between approval rating and favorability. Her approval ratings have been consistently in the mid-40s. About 10% of the population, it looks to me, has a favorable view of Dole personally but is either neutral toward or disapproves of her job performance. That seems reasonable.

No one has much of an opinion of Kay Hagan or Jim Neal. Hagan's favorable/unfavorable is 10/10. Neal's is 8/8.

Neal is actually viewed slightly more favorably by Democrats than Hagan- 14/11 to her 12/11.

The numbers on this one are bizzare though. Neal's net favorability is greater among conservatives (8/6) than it is among liberals (12/14). I don't think it's Rasmussen's fault, I just think it's people answering questions that they don't really have a clue of the answer to, because it makes no sense for more liberals to view Neal unfavorably than favorably.

There's a lot more to digest here but the bottom line is that if no more than 20% of the population has an opinion one way or another about either Hagan or Neal they need to start getting more well known sooner than later, which is not a new revelation.

Full results here.

And thanks to WRAL for conducting an interesting poll.