It’s not often that I link to the New York Times, and even rarer that I link to one of their polls, but this one was just too good to pass up.

Sixty-seven percent of those surveyed by The New York Times and CBS News since the announcement said they thought that Mr. Obama had made it “mostly for political reasons,” while 24 percent said it was “mostly because he thinks it is right.” Independents were more likely to attribute it to politics, with nearly half of Democrats agreeing.

That’s because it was for political reasons. Just look at the timing.

According to Rasmussen Reports’ daily tracking polls (full chart behind the paywall, sorry), Obama started to lose to Romney in their polling with the poll of May 3-5.

	Obama	Romney
May 13 – No Polling
May 10-12, 2012	44	48
May 9-11, 2012	42	50
May 8-10, 2012	43	50
May 7-9, 2012	45	49
May 6-8, 2012	44	49
May 5-7, 2012	44	49
May 4-6, 2012	45	47
May 3-5, 2012	46	47
May 2-4, 2012	47	46
May 1-3, 2012	47	45

Obama announced that he’d changed his mind on May 9, just a few days after he started to sink in the polls. Is it any wonder people see it as a cold and cynical political move, especially given his long history of flip-flopping on this issue?

UPDATE: As could be expected, the Obama camp is trying to spin the poll as biased. Given how far in the tank the NY Times has been for Obama in the past, not to mention the data I listed above about the timing, that really doesn’t pass the laugh test.