Americans–and Republicans–have soured on Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush after they announced that they are seriously considering 2016 White House runs.
A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that “19 percent of Americans now give Bush a positive rating, while 32 percent assess him negatively.” Twenty-seven percent of Americans view Romney favorably while 40% view him negatively.
As NBC noted, in September of last year, Romney’s “ratings stood at 32 percent positive/ 39 percent negative.” And in November of last year, 26% of Americans viewed Bush favorably while 33% viewed him negatively.
Among Republicans, 52% view Romney favorably while 15% view him negatively. Last September, 60% of Republicans viewed Romney favorably compared to 13% who viewed him negatively.
Las November, “Bush’s rating stood at 44 percent positive to 12 percent negative” among Republicans. Now, just 37% of Republicans view Bush favorably while 15% view him negatively.
Romney, who is considering a third White House run, does better among Tea Partiers and conservatives than Bush, whose embrace of comprehensive amnesty legislation and Common Core has turned off many conservatives.
Bush and Romney would be competing for the same set of donors and voters on the establishment side of the 2016 bracket. Based on name identification, both have been at the top of various ’16 presidential polls in what is shaping up to be a very fluid field.
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