Drudge recycles RNC tweet as headline, pushing poll showing little support for GOP

When it comes to hyping polls, the Republican National Committee (RNC) and the conservative news blogger Matt Drudge might want to read past their own headline.

In a Monday update via micro-blogging platform Twitter, the RNC boasted about a Gallup survey that highlighted a trend showing some states were moving out of the "Solid Democratic" column.

"Gallup: Number of blue states cut in half since 2008 as Americans continue to reject Dems tax-borrow-spend agenda," they declared.

The only trouble was that the same poll shows that there are still nearly three times as many "Solid Democratic" states as "Solid Republican" states.

According to the survey, there were 30 states in the "Solid Democratic" column in 2008. By 2010, there were still 14 states in the "Solid Democratic" column, and still only five "solidly Republican" states.

Minutes after the RNC message went out, the conservative Drudge Report also prominently displayed a link to the same poll, with a strikingly similar spin in his headline.

Despite Drudge and the RNC's misrepresentation, Gallup noted that even with shrinking favors for Democrats, blue states still outnumbered red states by 23 to 10 last year.

"Even with Democratic Party affiliation declining during the past two years, Democratic states still outnumbered Republican states by 23 to 10 last year, and there were 14 solidly Democratic states compared with 5 solidly Republican states," Gallup wrote.

"Looking more closely at the changes in state party affiliation since 2008, only one state moved from a Democratic positioning to a Republican positioning -- New Hampshire, which was solidly Democratic in 2008 but now is considered leaning Republican," they added.

A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll taken late last year found Obama easily topping even the most popular Republican contenders in 2012. The agencies noted that results indicated he'd best former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin by 22 percent, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney by seven percent.

Republican presidential contender and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee predicted recently that the 2012 primaries would be a bloodbath for his party and could gift reelection to President Barack Obama on a silver plate.