Polling Blame for the Economy

From the Battleground Poll:

President Barack Obama is not getting blamed for the terrible economy. When asked who is most to blame, George W. Bush (25 percent), large financial firms (20 percent) and Congress (15 percent) topped the list. Obama was faulted by only 11 percent.

This is (to me, at least) somewhat surprising.  First, because presidents typically top the list for taking blame/receiving credit for the current state of the economy at a given moment in time.  Second, because to listen much of the political chatter, one would have the impression that massive numbers of people fault Obama’s policies for the current state of affairs.

FILED UNDER: US Politics, ,
Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. john personna says:

    It shows people aren’t completely mad.  You can’t be to blame for something you were arguably elected as a response to.  Temporal anomaly.

  2. Tano says:

    Yes, the dominant media narrative is quite a bit at odds with the reality out there. Another good example is the new NYTCBS poll that shows that for all the criticism directed at the Dems, the American people clearly believe that the Republicans are worse, that the Dems have better ideas for solving our problems. You would never know that from reading the conventional wisdom in the media, or the amplification of that CW in the blogosphere.

  3. legion says:

    Indeed, Tano. People are ticked at Obama because they (and I, FWIW) don’t think what he’s doing is as effective as it could be, but the GOP has done a very good job convincing everyone that if they get (or still had) the reins, they would make things categorically worse.