Obama, the Recession, and Polls
A CNN poll released today finds that "opinion about which political party is responsible for the severe economic downturn is shifting." According to the survey, "38 percent of the public blames Republicans for the country's current economic problems. That's down 15 points from May, when 53 percent blamed the GOP. According to the poll 27 percent now blame the Democrats ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 20, 2009 18:06
Obama Hurt Deeds in Virginia
Pollster Glen Bolger (a founding partner at my wife's firm) looks at the data in the Virginia governor's race and concludes that Barack Obama hurt Democrat Creigh Deeds. At the end of tracking, we added some questions paid for by the Republican National Committee specifically to measure the Obama effect. [...] The dominant national issue at that time (and still) is health care. ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 10, 2009 12:22
Scozzafava Endorses Democrat Owens
The special election to fill New York's 23rd Congressional District seat vacated by the appointment of Republican John McHugh as Secretary of the Army has taken yet another bizarre twist. Republican nominee Dede Scozzafava dropped out over the weekend, causing great celebration on the part of Republicans like Michelle Malkin, who termed her "radical leftist GOP candidate Dede Scozzafava" and ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 2, 2009 08:20
D.C. Marriage Rate Lowest in U.S.
Tyler Cowen points me to an interesting discussion on the subject "Why So Few D.C. Residents Are Married." Washington City Paper's Amanda Hess cites a Pew survey finding that "Only 23 percent of women and 28 percent of men and in D.C. are married, compared to 48 and 52 percent nationwide. The rates in D.C. are so low that they ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 23, 2009 10:00
Obama Leads 2012 Opponents
Taegan Goddard links a Public Policy Polling survey [PDF] showing that President Obama would have beaten the most commonly mentioned Republican hopefuls had the election been held from October 16th to 19th and opened to registered voters. (I hasten to add, it wasn't.) In fact, according to the survey, "Obama leads Mike Huckabee 47-43, Mitt Romney 48-40, Sarah Palin 52-40, and ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 22, 2009 11:58
Lies, Damned Lies, and Health Care Polls
Ezra Klein points to a new ABC/WaPo poll showing a solid majority support "a law that requires all Americans to have health insurance, either getting it from work, buying it on their own, or through eligibility for Medicare or Medicaid." Further, the same poll finds a third of those who oppose would switch sides "if the government gave financial assistance ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 20, 2009 15:16
Marijuana Legalization Support at Record High
While a majority still supports criminalization, more Americans than ever think marijuana should be legal, according the latest Gallup survey. Lydia Saad (a family friend) provides the analysis: Gallup's October Crime poll finds 44% of Americans in favor of making marijuana legal and 54% opposed. U.S. public support for legalizing marijuana was fixed in the 25% range from the late ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 20, 2009 09:30
Stimulus Spending Doesn’t Work – Tax Cuts Do
Via Jonathan Adler, I see that world-renowned economist Robert Barro and his student, Charles Redlick, takes to WSJ to summarize their research report showing that stimulus spending doesn't work. Oddly, take cuts do. The bottom line is this: The available empirical evidence does not support the idea that spending multipliers typically exceed one, and thus spending stimulus programs will likely ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 1, 2009 10:01
Obama 56, Republicans 30
A NYT/CBS poll finds that President Obama's approval remains strong but support for his handling of key policy issues is dipping. The Republicans are not, however, gaining much ground. At 56 percent, his approval rating is down from earlier in the year but still reasonably strong at this point compared with recent presidents. More Americans are starting to credit his stimulus package ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 25, 2009 05:41
Fringe Views Not So Fringe
Via Eric Kleefeld, I see Public Policy Polling has surveyed Americans on various conspiracy theories and wild ideas and found substantial adherence to all of them, leading their Tom Jensen to ask "Is extremism becoming mainstream in 21st century American politics?" Our latest national poll would seem to say yes- 35% voters in the country either think that Barack Obama was ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 24, 2009 08:55
Losing Our Religion
Dan Gilgoff passes on word of a new survey projecting that a quarter of Americans will be atheists or non-believers twenty years from now. If current trends continue, a quarter of Americans are likely to claim "no religion" in 20 years, according to a survey out today by Trinity College. Americans who identify with no religious tradition currently comprise 15 percent ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 23, 2009 07:44
Republicans a Regional Party?
Steve Benen puts together a chart based on DailyKos' weekly State of the Nation poll and notices that the GOP has virtually no support outside the South: In case anyone's having trouble reading the visual, the Republican Party's favorability is very weak in Northeast (7% to 87%), and only marginally better in the Midwest (13% to 78%) and West (14% to ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 19, 2009 07:38
45% of Doctors Would Quit Under ObamaCare
A new Investor's Business Daily poll contends that nearly half the nation's doctors would "Consider leaving [their] practice or taking an early retirement" if "Congress passes its health care plan." Two of every three practicing physicians oppose the medical overhaul plan under consideration in Washington, and hundreds of thousands would think about shutting down their practices or retiring early if it ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 16, 2009 09:59
Obama White Support Declining
President Obama is losing support among white voters -- including white Democrats -- a new LAT poll finds. The voters losing faith in the president are the ones he had worked hardest to attract. New surveys show steep declines in Obama's approval ratings among whites -- including Democrats and independents -- who were crucial elements of the diverse coalition that helped ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 8, 2009 09:46
Obama Support Drops with Democrats, Independents
President Obama's approval ratings are continuing to fall, especially among young Democrats and working class whites. Ron Brownstein highlights a new Pew poll showing the trends since the election: Pew found Obama's numbers are weakest among groups that were skeptical of him last year, but appeared to be kicking the tires on him during the honeymoon stage of his presidency. Now those ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 22, 2009 08:37
