Obama Doing Better Than Expected In Texas

As much as I hate to admit it, Texas is a Republican state. Every single statewide elected office is filled by a Republican, and has been for a while. And while President Obama won the 2008 election by a large margin, no one was surprised that he lost in Texas to John McCain. In fact, I don't think anyone in either party has been giving him any chance of carrying Texas in 2012 either.

But there's a new poll out from Public Policy Polling. The PPP poll (taken between September 15th and 18th of 569 Texas voters, and having a 4.1 point margin of error) was titled "Obama Trails Perry. . .", but I think that headline ignores just how red the state of Texas really is. Personally, I thought the poll showed President Obama doing better than expected in Texas. He comes within a few points of the leading candidates -- Perry (7 points) and Romney (6 points). And he actually finishes ahead of Bachmann and Gingrich, and finishes well within the margin of error with Paul.

Considering the current state of the economy and the unemployment situation, that's pretty good for a Democratic candidate occupying the White House. Maybe it wouldn't be such a waste of time to do some calling and knock on some doors in the next election -- especially if Obama shows he has some fight in him for the jobs creation bill he has proposed. Here's how Obama currently stacks up against the Republican candidates in Texas:

Obama...............44%
Perry...............51%
Undecided...............5%

Obama...............41%
Romney...............47%
Undecided...............13%

Obama...............42%
Paul...............43%
Undecided...............15%

Obama...............46%
Gingrich...............45%
Undecided...............9%

Obama...............45%
Bachmann...............43%
Undecided...............13%

I'm still not predicting an Obama win in Texas, but those figures are a lot closer than I thought they were.