respondents

Tea Party - Less Popular Than Muslims And Atheists

I'm sure this will cause some heads to explode:

In an op-ed article in the New York Times, Robert D. Putnam, a professor of public policy at Harvard, and David E. Campbell, a political scientist at Notre Dame, say they have collected data indicating that the tea party is "less popular than much maligned groups like 'atheists' and 'Muslims.'"

But Campbell says the tea party was really an afterthought in their research.

"We didn't go into this study to look at the tea party," Campbell said in an interview with The Ticket.

The professors were following up on research they conducted in 2006 and 2007 for their book "American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us" and decided to add the tea party and atheists to their list of survey queries. By going back to many of the same respondents, the professors gleaned several interesting facts about the tea party.

Politics

Who Thinks Raising Taxes Is A Good Idea?

Apparently a majority of Americans. In 23 polls conducted asking if tax hikes should also be included to help reduce the deficit, a vast majority said "yes". An average of 65 percent of respondents to be exact. That's almost 2/3 of this country. The responses ranged from 56%-76%, with the low number being attributed to a right-wing Rasmussen poll.

And I thought John Boehner was going to listen to the people! Silly me.....

Economy

New Poll Finds That The GOP Congress Is The Opposite Of The People When It Comes To Spending

A new New York Times/CBS poll has some really interesting numbers when it comes to dealing with the budget. For example; 55% of respondents feel that cutting military spending is the right way to go, including 42% of Republicans, which was the winning cut for the GOP in the poll. That really goes against the budget proposal put out by the GOP yesterday.

Another interesting find is how Americans want to fix Social Security and Medicare. 48% feel the premiums should be raised on high-income recipients. That came in first, with raising the retirement age at second and with only 21% supporting it. Again, even the Republicans in the poll agree with raising the high-income premiums.

But most overwhelming is the results in the question “If you had to choose one, which of the following changes to Social Security benefits would you prefer in order to keep the program financially sound?”. Here are the results for that question:

Two-thirds of the respondents feel we should reduce the benefits on the higher income recipients. Again, a vast majority of Republicans also support this idea.

Society

A Majority Of Minnesotans Are Embarrassed By Bachmannstein

A new poll out has found that a majority of Minnesotans are embarrassed by their most famous member of Congress, Michele Bachmann:

A new survey of Minnesotans shows that a majority of residents — 56 percent — are embarrassed by Rep. Michele Bachmann. The release of the survey, commissioned by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Democracy for America and Credo Action, follows recent high-profile statements by Bachmann that she believes President Barack Obama wants to “annihilate” conservatives, that the U.S. faces a “curse” – and extinction — if it fails to support Israel, and that government must “wean” Americans off of social safety net programs like Medicare and Social Security.

Will Pay For Content Help The Media?

According to a new study just released, 80% of consumers would not be willing to pay for access to online content:

A similar study was done by the Boston Consulting Group and found only 48% of the respondents would pay for online access to news, and the average monthly price they would be willing to pay is only $3 per month.

So is “pay for content” the silver bullet the media is looking for? Going by these numbers, no it isn’t. A better cure for the media would be more openness – a willingness to work with bloggers to drive traffic to their sites.

Mandates And The Constitution

There has been a lot of talk lately about the constitutionality of the health insurance mandate. The right seems to want to point to the tenth amendment:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Yesterday Nancy Pelosi’s office clarified that the right of Congress to mandate people to buy insurance lies in Article 1:

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;

To me using this part of the Constitution doesn’t lay much credit to Pelosi’s argument. There is a section of Article 1 that seems to provide this power more so to Congress:

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;

In particular the part of the “general Welfare of the United States”. In constitutional terms Welfare is defined as:

health, happiness, or prosperity; well-being

The Public Option – Vital To Democratic Survival

There has been a lot of talk about the new WaPo/ABC poll that finds 57% of the respondents want the public option, with 51% saying go for it without Republican support.

Another interesting number in this new poll is 20%. That’s how many people now identify themselves as Republican. The numbers are very dire for the GOP:

Only 20 percent of Americans now identify themselves as Republicans, the fewest in 26 years. Just 19 percent, similarly, trust the Republicans in Congress to make the right decisions for the country's future; even among Republicans themselves just four in 10 are confident in their own party. For comparison, 49 percent overall express this confidence in Obama, steady since August albeit well below its peak.

And while it looks bad for Republicans, it should also send a warning shot to Democrats. On a nearly 3:1 basis people support the public option more than they claim to be a Republican. That’s a huge margin. So what will happen if the Democrats scrap the public option because of Republican opposition, or put in other words – if the majority party gave in to the 20% minority party? Simple – loss of power.

No I am not saying that everyone will say “that’s it I’m voting Republican”. Instead what will happen is people will say “that’s it, I’m done voting!” 2010 is a mid-term year and already has the obstacle of being near impossible to get voters to head to the polls. Add to that a disgust with the Democrats for not listening to their base, and you will see far less head out to the polling places. Likewise Republicans will be touting the defeat of the public option as a huge victory over Democrats and use that to energize their base, thus translating that energy into votes.

What Kind Of Poll Is This?

One thing about Rasmussen – they never cease to amaze:

Edward C. Johnson III, chairman of Fidelity Investments, said recently of government efforts to jump-start the economy, “We can only hope that the government’s cure doesn’t further sicken the patient.”

Sixty-five percent (65%) of U.S. voters agree with Johnson in a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Fifteen percent (15%) disagree, and 20% are not sure if he’s right or not.

Um only 65% hope that the economy doesn’t get worse from the efforts by our government? I guess that means we have about 15% of the respondents taking cues from Limbaugh in hoping Obama fails, and 20% who aren’t sure if they are with Limbaugh or not.

Rasmussen – The Joke Of All Polls

Check out this latest Rasmussen headline:

Just 11% of Republicans Say Limbaugh Is Their Party’s Leader

Now check out the wording:

“he says jump and they say how high”. What poll in history can you remember phrasing a question like that, let alone flat out calling him the “leader of the party”.

When you look at this crappy attempt to push poll by Rasmussen, then see that 11% of Republicans and almost 1/3 of the total respondents still agree then there is no doubt – Rush Limbaugh is running the Republican party.

PEW: Obama Up By 16%

Wow!

Barack Obama leads John McCain by a 52% to 36% margin in Pew’s latest nationwide survey of 1,325 registered voters. This is the fourth consecutive survey that has found support for the Republican candidate edging down. In contrast, since early October weekly Pew surveys have shown about the same number of respondents saying they back Obama. When the sample is narrowed to those most likely to vote, Obama leads by 53% to 38%.

Let's hope these numbers hold true for the next week.

Obama Leads McCain By 6 And Bush Still Sucks

First the good news:

Presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama holds a six point lead over his Republican counterpart John McCain, a new CBS News poll finds. Obama leads McCain 48 percent to 42 percent among registered voters, with 6 percent of respondents undecided.

Then the good news:

President Bush's approval rating is at its lowest level to date. Just 25 percent of Americans approve of the overall job Mr. Bush is doing as President, an all-time low for him and among the lowest approval ratings ever recorded for a President.

McCain = Bush is a great campaign strategy to run on this year. I'm curious to see how much more lower he goes when it gets around that Bush did lie us into war and we now have an investigation that proves it.

Yes We Are!

Barack and Michelle Obama said this today:

Democrat Barack Obama and his wife said Thursday the public is tired of hearing about incendiary remarks by their former pastor, as they sought to put the controversy that has rocked his presidential campaign to rest.

"We hear time and time again voters are tired of this," Michelle Obama said in an interview the couple gave to NBC's "Today" show.'

Again we are stuck suffering through some media created outrage. MSNBC has been particularly disgusting with this story. It has been the topic of conversation for the last several days. They want people to think it is the main issue facing Americans, and that we worry about nothing else. Forget Iraq, the economy, terrorism, health care, jobs, etc. - we want to hear about Wright! This just shows how out of touch they are with the American public.

So how much is America concerned about Wright? Markos digs that up for us:

How much bigger? 43 percent of respondents are concerned about the 71-year-old John McCain's close ties to George Bush.

36 percent have concerns about Clinton's political opportunism, and 27 percent are concerned about Bill Clinton being back in the White House.

34 percent have problems with Obama's "bitter" remarks and 32 percent give a damn about Jeremiah Wright.

The two biggest "outrages" the media has created, Wright and "bittergate", are the least of voters concerns. In that poll, it looks like John McCain has the most to worry about. I wonder if MSNBC will bring this up? I doubt it since it's just a poll - a poll ran by NBC!

Take The Polls With A Grain Of Salt

There is a lot of talk about the latest Gallup daily tracker showing Clinton opening up a lead over Obama yesterday. Here's the problem though - the polls have been wrong. I'm not dissing the pollsters on this, it's an extremely complex year to poll. With record levels of new registrations and people declaring and/or switching parties, it makes it hard for the pollsters to track down the actual voters. Generally they pick their respondents based upon previous elections and party affiliation. This year that doesn't give a highly reliable pool of people to choose from.

Opposition to the War Grows - Why Are Americans So Wrong?!?!

Looks like Americans are still not pleased with Iraq, no matter how many new catch phrases the administration comes up with:

Negative assessments of the war in Iraq -- the central issue in last month's midterm election -- continue to hold down President Bush's job approval ratings and could cast a pall on the final two years of his presidency.

In a new Post-ABC News poll, seven in 10 Americans disapprove of the way the president is handling the situation in Iraq -- the highest percentage since the March 2003 invasion. Six in 10 say the war was not worth fighting.

While both gauges on the war have been negative since late 2004, Bush's approval rating on Iraq has deteriorated further since early October, likely weakened by recent high-profile criticisms of the administration's Iraq policy.

The bleak appraisals of the war include the release last week of the much-anticipated report from the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan government advisory panel, which described conditions in Iraq as "grave and deteriorating."

Well now, I know that is only one poll. Let's try another just released:

As President Bush weighs options for changing course in Iraq, Americans are more pessimistic on the war and most support a quick withdrawal of U.S. troops, according to a new USA TODAY/Gallup poll.

More than half of the respondents, or 55 percent, want most U.S. troops withdrawn within a year, but only 18 percent believe that will happen, USA Today reported on Tuesday.

Who is Stronger on National Security?

The Ap-Ipsos put out a new poll featuring elections and terrorism. It has some really interesting results (Full survey here - PDF file).

First, the Democrats still hold a lead in the way of national security

Who do you trust to do a better job of protecting the country?
Democrats	37%
Republicans	32%
Both equally	4%
Neither	22%

It is interesting that the Republicans boast about this strong stand on national security and the trust the American people have in them with the job. But as the numbers show, they have lost that trust and that was their key issue. Perhaps a major contributing factor to that comes from this response:

In the long term, do you think there will be more or less terrorism in the United States because the U.S. went to war in Iraq?
More	60%
Less	31%
About the same	6%
Not sure	3%

While Rumsfeld and Bush are out in Iraq defense mode this week, a vast majority of Americans feel that the war of choice has made our country less safe.

The most interesting part is the demographics involved with this poll. Most respondents were white, married, suburban females. The top age range was in the 18-34. In other words, this survey included a large percentage of "soccer moms". This shows that they feel less safe and a contributing factor is the decision to oust Saddam Hussein. This is a key to the November elections.