Gallup finds familiar divides in presidential race

Gallup releases a few more internals from its presidential poll today, and finds fairly static results on candidate attributes.

Mitt Romney sports a significant, 52%-43%, lead on the economy, while Barack Obama picks up an ever bigger 54%-31% edge on likability.

Romney's lead on the economy is stable, but Obama's likability advantage has actually been falling.

In May, 63% of voters said he was more likable than Romney; now that's just 54%.

Normally, that might be attributed to natural tightening as election day comes closer, but here's the caveat -- Romney's number hasn't fallen; in fact, it's slightly jumped. That means that the campaign has tarnished Obama's likability more than Romney's.

Here's Gallup's table of personal attributes.


Note the empathy gap -- I've long argued that you should look at that as a pseudo-economic measure, since it logically follows that the person who cares more about your needs will look after those needs.

Now here's Gallup's list of issues.


Note that Romney is much stronger on the economy and budget deficit, while Obama is much stronger on a coterie of issues that's impressive but, nevertheless, not quite at the fore of voters' minds.

So then -- will voters value quality or quantity on the list of issues?