new poll

A new poll by the New York Times finds very bad news for Congress:

A record 82 percent of Americans now disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job — the most since The Times first began asking the question in 1977, and even more than after another political stalemate led to a shutdown of the federal government in 1995.

More than four out of five people surveyed said that the recent debt-ceiling debate was more about gaining political advantage than about doing what is best for the country. Nearly three-quarters said that the debate had harmed the image of the United States in the world.

A poorly rated Congress was one of the key talking points of the 2010 mid-terms. Republican candidates and pundits constantly talked about the poor ratings of Congress and how they would work harder for the people and turn that around. Well guess what? We have another broken promise. While the public views both parties very unfavorably in the debt crisis, the GOP does get more of the blame:

Republicans in Congress shoulder more of the blame for the difficulties in reaching a debt-ceiling agreement than President Obama and the Democrats, the poll found.

The Republicans compromised too little, a majority of those polled said. All told, 72 percent disapproved of the way Republicans in Congress handled the negotiations, while 66 percent disapproved of the way Democrats in Congress handled negotiations.

But the biggest part of this poll gives bad news to the Tea Party:

A new poll, this time out of New Hampshire:

When PPP polled New Hampshire in April Michele Bachmann was stuck at 4%. She's gained 14 points over the last three months and now finds herself within single digits of Mitt Romney. Romney continues to lead the way in the state with 25% to 18% for Bachmann, 11% for Sarah Palin, 9% for Ron Paul, 7% for Rick Perry and Herman Cain, 6% for Jon Huntsman and Tim Pawlenty, and 4% for Newt Gingrich.

Ironically I still see a lot of people on the left, laughing off Bachmann as some sort of joke. I really hope they stop it soon.

The two top contenders for the 2012 GOP Presidential nod are facing increased hostility in the GOP electorate a new poll from PPP finds. Here’s some of the interesting numbers:

• 20% find that Romney’s Mormon religion is a problem.
• 30% Believe that Newt’s three divorces are a disqualifier.
• 61% won’t vote for Romney because of Romney-care.

The poll was conducted amongst likely GOP voters and the last number is very problematic for Romney. Romney-care was something instituted on the state level. Think about the main complaint of the mandate in Obama care when it comes to Republicans – that the mandate should be handled on the state level. With close to 2/3rds of GOP voters opposing Romney for instituting a mandate on the state level, it shows that Republicans are against the mandate all together and saying the federal government “over reached” was nothing more than a strawman.

And speaking of Strawmen, the poll has some other interesting information tucked away in it:

One other note from our Republican primary poll- GOP voters think that the ACORN threat has gone down significantly. In November of 2009 we found 52% of Republicans thought ACORN had stolen the election for Barack Obama in 2008. Now only 25% think the organization will steal the election for him again next year, while 43% think it will not and 32% aren't sure yet.

Now 25% may seem like a high percentage to think that an organization no longer in existence will manage to steal a Presidential election but it's less than half the number who thought that two years ago.

Among Republicans who think ACORN will steal the election their top choice for the nomination is Palin at 20%, followed by Gingrich at 19%, and Huckabee and Romney at 16%.

A new poll released by Public Policy Polling has found that Fox News is no longer the trusted news source:

Maybe America is waking up? Well not entirely. The poll did find that 67% of Republicans trust Fox, while only 22% of Democrats did. Fox also gets the most trust in the over 65 age group, with 48% trusting them. That number also isn’t shocking, but it is disturbing given the higher voter turn out for the 65+ age group.

It’s going to be the Republicans big campaign talking point this year – REPEAL! That might work for the crazies in the Tea Party, but a new poll shows that a big majority of those who support repeal actually want the bill repealed so we can get something better – a public option:

When asked how important they thought it was for Congress to work on “establishment of a public option that would give individuals a choice between government provided health insurance or private health insurance,” 67 percent of Americans rated this as an important topic to address. This finding is even more striking given the fact that 59 percent of those in favor of repealing the health care reform legislation rated the public option as important to pursue. Another surprise is that 67 percent of Republicans and 59 percent of Independents also agreed that the public option was an important topic to be addressed by Congress.

That really puts a crimp in the GOP arguments to just do away with reform.

Markos has just released a new poll with some very interesting numbers. These are from self-identified Republicans:

Should Barack Obama be impeached, or not?

Yes 39
No 32
Not Sure 29

I would love to know what high crimes and misdemeanors they believe he has committed.

Do you think Barack Obama is a socialist?

Yes 63
No 21
Not Sure 16

Again – a total myth. President Obama is to the right of Hillary Clinton and they still think he is some socialist. Why? Because of the bank bailouts? Those were enacted under Bush and heavily supported by John McCain – the Republican nominee at the time.

Markos has much more on this madness.

There has been a lot of polls come out over the past 48 hours showing the Massachusetts special election for Kennedy’s seat was turning a tide and heading towards a possible defeat for Democrats. Now there is a new poll that may give Democrats some breathing room:

A new Boston Globe poll shows Martha Coakley (D), "buoyed by her durable statewide popularity, enjoys a solid, 15-percentage-point lead" among likely voters over rival Scott Brown (R) in the Massachusetts U.S. Senate race, 50% to 35%.

In fact, Coakley's lead grows to 17 points -- 53% to 36% -- when undecideds leaning toward a candidate are included in the tally.

I can’t wait to see the outcome of this race. It will be interesting to see which poll gets it the closest. That will be a big indicator as to who to trust in the cycle this year.

 Greg Sargant points out that in a new CNN poll there is a 6 point uptick in support for the Senate bill. There are some other numbers in that poll that are very interesting:

Thinking about the health care and health insurance that is available to most Americans, do you think the proposals in the Senate bill would change things for the better, change things for the worse, or not make any real changes at all?
34% Change for the better, 38% Change for the worse, 26% No change

Thinking about the health care and health insurance that is available to you and your immediate family, do you think the proposals in the Senate bill would change things for the better, change things for the worse, or not make any real changes at all?
22% Change for the better, 37% Change for the worse, 39% No change

These two questions were rotated in the polling, so they each represent a 50% coverage of those polled. It’s interesting that while support for the bill has gone up (even though it is still widely opposed), the number of people who thinks the bill will do actual good remains low and out numbered by those who think it will do more harm than good. In all honesty I think we should look at change for the worse and no change as the same thing.