CBS Poll: Obama Approval 39 Percent, GOP Up Big on Congressional Ballot

The final pre-election poll from CBS News bears good news for Republicans. We'll get to the data in a moment; first, let's revisit something we mentioned earlier in the week in reporting the WaPo/ABC News poll, which gave Republicans a sizable lead. Pollster' final generic ballot numbers have bounced all over the place. The NBC/WSJ poll showed the GOP ahead by a whopping 11 points. Then both CNN and Fox News gave Democrats a one-point edge, causing liberals to briefly cease whining about Fox News. WaPo/ABC News measured a six-point Republican lead, and now this from CBS News:

Republicans hit 50 and lead by eight percentage points when so-called 'leaners' are included. In addition to a 13-point enthusiasm advantage over Democrats, the GOP enjoys leads among registered voters on a host of key issues -- meaning that these gaps are larger with likely voters:

CBS News poll: GOP preferred by voters on immigration (+2), economy (+7), foreign policy (+10), terrorism (+20) http://t.co/wMg43qEi45
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) October 30, 2014

The eight-point Congressional ballot margin for Republicans is wider than CBS News' last pre-election survey in 2010, which seems newsworthy, yet CBS News doesn't seem very excited about reporting their own results. As you note this headline juxtaposition, remember that 2006 was a similar midterm environment to this year, just with the roles reversed:

Bias? What bias? CBS in 2006: Poll: Dems Carry Big Pre-Election Lead CBS in 2014: What Americans think of Congress and the President
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) October 30, 2014

Why, it's almost as if the straight-down-the-middle truth seekers at CBS News are feeling a bit mopey over Republicans polling well. Speaking of which a new Quinnipiac poll out of Colorado shows Cory Gardner in the lead by seven points, with incumbent Mark Udall stuck at 39 percent. The survey result

precisely mirrors a Suffolk/USA Today poll of the race released last week. In an interview with me on last night's Hugh Hewitt Show, Gardner derided the Left's ludicrous attacks against him as "obnoxious" (quoting the Denver Post editorial endorsing him), and said his team "feels good" about their position and ground game heading down the final stretch. Meanwhile, Tom Cotton has opened up a massive 13-point lead on incumbent Democrat Mark Pryor among Arkansas' likeliest voters, according to a University of Arkansas survey. Cotton also leads fairly comfortably among all adults. If these data points even remotely reflect reality, Pryor is toast. Democrats got some good news in North Carolina, where an Elon poll shows Kay Hagan maintaining a four-point lead on Thom Tillis, unchanged from the previous result in the series. I'll leave you with a positive sign in Iowa:

Dem edge in Iowa early vote: 1.7%. At this point in 2010: 6.5%. http://t.co/0TYbZ27vZ7 pic.twitter.com/V8UDEFbOl4
— Molly Ball (@mollyesque) October 30, 2014

Turnout, turnout, turnout.