Contrary to our resident teabagger RustyDils, the President has a 19 point lead in California. No, Rusty, car elevators do not endear Romney to Californians. Meanwhile, Michigan becomes strong Obama territory, and Obama takes a slight lead in Colorado, although not a big enough lead for Colorado to lose its Toss up status.

Polls are now calling cell phones, in addition to landlines, and the findings resulting from that points out another generational gap.

In our NBC-Marist poll of Florida, Romney leads with landline respondents, 48%-45%. But Obama leads among cell phone respondents, 57%-34%. And in Virginia, Romney’s up one among landline folks, 47%-46%, while Obama is up 54%-36% with cell users. (By the way, 28% of our interviews in OH and FL were conducted on cell phone; 27% in VA.)

If you are older, you are more likely to have a landline only. If you are younger, you are more likely to have a cell phone only.

Here are some more internal finds that I find interesting from last week’s Washington Post / ABC News Poll:

Who do you think would do more to advance the economic interests of middle class Americans, Obama or Romney?

Obama: 51
Romney: 42

Who do you think would do more to advance the economic interests of wealthy Americans, Obama or Romney?
Obama: 24
Romney: 65

Who do you think would do more to advance the economic interests of financial institutions, Obama or Romney?

Obama: 32
Romney: 56

Obama = the fighter for the middle class and the working man. Romney = the fighter for the wealthy and the banks.

NATIONAL–PRESIDENT (Gallup Tracking): Obama 47, Romney 45
NATIONAL–PRESIDENT (Rasmussen Tracking): Obama 46, Romney 45
CALIFORNIA–PRESIDENT (LA Times/USC): Obama 56, Romney 37
COLORADO–PRESIDENT (Project New America): Obama 48, Romney 44
MICHIGAN–PRESIDENT (PPP): Obama 53, Romney 39
FLORIDA–GOVERNOR (2014) (Florida Opinion Research): Charlie Crist (D) 48, Gov. Rick Scott (R) 34
MISSOURI–SENATOR (PPP): Todd Akin (R) 45, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) 44; McCaskill 44, Sarah Steelman (R) 44; McCaskill 46, John Brunner (R) 44
MISSOURI–SENATOR–REPUBLICAN PRIMARY (PPP): Sarah Steelman 28, John Brunner 25, Todd Akin 23
NEW MEXICO–SENATOR–DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY (Albuquerque Journal): Martin Heinrich 51, Hector Balderas 26
NEW MEXICO–SENATOR–REPUBLICAN PRIMARY (Albuquerque Journal): Heather Wilson 66, Greg Sowards 20
NORTH CAROLINA–GOVERNOR (National Research–R): Pat McCrory (R) 48, Walter Dalton (D) 38

If Hillary Clinton is not our presumptive nominee in 2016 (and I think she will be), conventional wisdom holds that we are due for an epic primary without a clear frontrunner. Well, maybe not. A new Quinnipiac poll in New York shows that Governor Cuomo has a 71% to 16% approval rating. Most popular governor in America.

This is pretty typical for the reality impaired GOP. They want to force insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions without an individual mandate that would create a big enough risk pool to pay for that coverage.

I have no doubt that they will propose some magical unicorn financing system which will make the system viable. Perhaps Iraq War oil revenue…?

From Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter:

“Mitt Romney’s continued embrace of Donald Trump and refusal to condemn his disgraceful conspiracy theories demonstrates his complete lack of moral leadership. Now he’s even standing by silently as Trump assails John McCain’s courage in standing up to the most extreme and hateful voices in the Republican Party—all in order to raise money for himself. If Mitt Romney lacks the backbone to stand up to a charlatan like Donald Trump because he’s so concerned about lining his campaign’s pockets, what does that say about the kind of president he would be?”

– via tpm

Awesome! This connects with a bunch of good narratives.

– Romney is a weak-ass flip-flopper, unable to stand up to the GOP’s most lunatic charlatan.
– In addition to being a weak flip-flopper, Romney values money over integrity.
– The GOP is full of Loonytunes and nutsos.

It is just a great play for them, and they will continue to get mileage out of it, because you know full-well that Trump is going to say some nutso shit at that fundraiser.

There was not much by way of polls released over the holiday weekend, so we will have to make do today by looking at some internals of recent polls.

Given that the economy is the most important issue of this election, and given the conventional wisdom that a bad economy dooms President Obama, how do we explain Nevada?

The Silver State … has the dubious distinction of leading the nation in unemployment, foreclosure filings and share of homes worth less than the mortgages on them.

If voters were inclined to blame Obama for the nation’s economic woes, Nevada would be strong Romney territory. Heck, as a bonus, it’s one of the most heavily Mormon states in the union! And yet, the polls show it to be consistent Obama territory, with even Rasmussen giving Obama over 50% of the vote. If Romney can’t win in Nevada, then he is doomed everywhere.

Indeed, perhaps a Washington Post / ABC News poll dated May 20 explains what is going on.

Who do you think is more responsible for the country’s current economic problems—Barack Obama or George W. Bush?

Bush: 49
Obama: 34
Both: 8

What do you think is the bigger problem in this country—unfairness in the economic system that favors the wealthy or over-regulation of the free market that interferes with growth and prosperity?

Unfairness: 56
Over-regulation: 34
Both: 5

This means that the public overwhelmingly agrees with President Obama’s core argument, by a 22 point margin. President Obama’s campaign theme is about moving forward from the mess Bush created towards an economy in which everyone has a fair shot and in which hard work and playing by the rules is rewarded with success. And it helps that nearly a majority of the public still blames the mess Bush created on Bush.

Meanwhile, last week a new national NBC News / Wall Street Journal / Telemundo poll found that President Obama leads Mitt Romney by 34 points among registered Latino voters, 61% to 27%. That number is only going to get higher as latinos discover just how evil Mitt Romney is on immigration.

That also could explain Nevada and other southwestern states.

In other polling news, Gallup has found that everyone thinks birth control is morally acceptable. Even 82% of Catholics.

And while the right wing was going crazy last week over a poll showing that only 41% of the public identified themselves as pro-choicers. Well, I guess a lot of them are hypocrites since 77% of them still want abortion legal, either under some restrictions or no restrictions.