A STRIKEOUT? – AT 9:08 A.M. ET:   The key political question before the house since last Friday is whether President Obama's executive action on immigration would have any political benefit, which clearly was the idea behind the action in the first place. 

Andrew Malcolm, at IBD, thinks the answer is starting to emerge: 

...Obama's dramatic illegal immigration non-amnesty amnesty did nothing politically for the Chicagoan in the polls. Zip. Nada. Rien.

On the day before his immigration remarks, Gallup's seven-day rolling average of about 3,000 registered voters in a hypothetical Obama-Romney match-up had the Republican ahead 46-45.

Four days later the rolling average was exactly the same, 46 Romney 45 Obama.

In Rasmussen Reports' three-day rolling average of their match-up, just before Obama's Rose Garden remarks, Romney lead Obama 47-45.

Three days later, Romney had improved to 48. Obama had slipped to 44.

So much for that predicted presidential poll bump.

Why is this? Well, a disciplined Romney, as he did in the later GOP primaries, has shown a laser campaign focus on jobs and the economy, the top poll issue every single day since Barack Hussein Obama took the oath twice in 2009 with a 69% approval rating. The Republican has refused to be drawn into distracting dust-ups of Obama's choosing, such as pretend immigration reform.

Obama attends a friend's wedding in Chicago, plays golf for the 100th time and flies to Mexico for yet another unproductive G-summit, including an icy audience with Russia's President Putin.

Meanwhile, an increasingly comfortable Romney guides his bus through crucial battleground states talking jobs and the economy at every single stop. He says, "Who wants four more years of greater and greater government regulations that strangle small businesses?"

COMMENT:  Well reasoned, but we stress that it's only June.  The public won't focus seriously on this race until after Labor Day.  Thus far Romney has run a well-managed if unexciting campaign.  The test will soon come. 

Beware the October surprise.

June 20, 2012