Rasmussen...
What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls
Saturday, September 24, 2011 

For many Americans, their home is their primary investment in the future. Concern remains at record levels that that investment is at risk, and the sour economy continues to play heavily on next year’s race for the White House. 

Homeowners remain very pessimistic about the potential short- and long-term values of their homes. Forty percent (40%) now expect their home’s value to go down over the next year, the highest level of pessimism to date. When it comes to the longer term, 36% believe their home’s value will go up during the next five years, down from 40% last month and just one point above the lowest level measured in over two years. 

The percentage of American homeowners whose home is worth less than what they still owe on it (37%) has hit the highest level in nearly three years. 

For the fourth straight month, fewer than half of adults nationwide believe buying a home is the best possible investment for a family.  This remains well below regular findings dating back to 2008. 

No wonder then that the Rasmussen Consumer and Investor Indexes which measure daily confidence among both groups remain near year-to-date lows. More than 60% of both consumers and investors say the U.S. economy is getting worse. 

With the economy still the new one issue as far as voters are concerned and with his own Job Approval numbers trending near record lows, President Obama began the week by proposing a major deficit reduction plan which calls for a mix of spending cuts and tax increases. Thirty-seven percent (37%) of Likely U.S. Voters favor the president’s plan, but 42% oppose it. Most like the president’s idea of setting a minimum tax rate for those making more than $1 million a year, but voters are lukewarm to his proposal to raise taxes on couples earning more than $250,000 annually. 

Here’s a political problem, though: While 50% of Americans think the president and Congress should consider a mix of spending cuts and tax increases in looking for ways to cut the federal deficit, nearly two-out-of-three adults (64%) are unwilling to pay higher taxes themselves to reduce that deficit. 

Republicans are still trusted more than Democrats to handle the economy, but the parties are now essentially tied on six out of 10 important issues that Rasmussen Reports regularly asks about. 

After all, voters are more convinced than ever that neither major political party in Washington, DC is on their side. Now roughly one-out-of-two Likely U.S. Voters (49%) think it’s fair to say neither party in Congress is the party of the American people, up six points from a year ago. Perhaps these views are fed in part by the doubts voters have about what Democrats and Republicans have in mind for the future. Voters are narrowly divided over whether either party has a plan for where it wants to take the nation. 

Republicans hold just a three-point advantage over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot for the week ending Sunday, September 18. That’s the narrowest margin between the two parties since the first week in August. The GOP has led on the ballot every week since June 2009. 

Most voters see a clear ideological divide between the leaders of the two major political parties: The Democrats are led by liberals, and the Republicans are helmed by conservatives. Twenty-nine percent (29%) of voters remain conservative on both fiscal and social issues. Just 10% say they are fiscal and social liberals. Sixty-one percent (61%) are some other combination. These findings are consistent with surveys back to November 2007, as is the continuing pattern that voters tend to be more fiscally conservative than socially conservative. 

A generic Republican candidate holds a five-point advantage over the president – 47% to 42% - in a hypothetical 2012 election matchup for the week ending Sunday, September 18. This is the 11th week in a row the Republican has led the incumbent. 

Obama and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney continue to run neck-and-neck in a hypothetical Election 2012 matchup. The latest Rasmussen Reports national survey of Likely U.S. Voters shows the president’s support at 44%, while Romney earns 41% of the vote. Seven percent (7%) prefer some other candidate, and another seven percent (7%) are undecided. 

More than 80% of likely Republican Primary voters say Romney and Texas Governor Rick Perry are likely to beat the president in the general election, but they are less confident about Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and Texas Congressman Ron Paul doing the same. 

As of now, the 2012 Republican Presidential Primary race is all about Perry and Romney, with no other candidate reaching double-digit support. It’ll be interesting to see if these numbers change after Thursday night’s GOP debate in Orlando, Florida. Perry, in particular, had a bad night with all the other candidates gunning for the frontrunner. 

Scott Rasmussen will explore our latest horse race numbers and more in tomorrow’s edition of The Rasmussen Report radio program. The show airs Sundays at 2 pm Central/3 pm Eastern on WLS 890AM in Chicago and WMAL 630AM in Washington, DC and streams online everywhere.  

Romney is the runaway leader in the race for the 2012 Republican nomination in New Hampshire, home of next year’s first presidential primary. He earns 39% of the vote in Rasmussen Reports’ first telephone survey of Likely Republican Primary Voters in New Hampshire in the Election 2012 campaign season. Perry is a distant second with 18% support, followed by Texas Congressman Ron Paul at 13%. The other announced GOP candidates are all in single digits. 

Bachmann continues to fade in the latest hypothetical 2012 matchup with Obama. The president is now ahead of the congresswoman by 16 points, 48% to 32%. 

Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman is having difficulty gaining traction in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, but he fares about the same as some of the top GOP contenders in a matchup with the president. Obama earns 43% of the vote to Huntsman’s 35% in a one-on-one matchup with the man who recently stepped down as his ambassador to China. 

Recent polling shows the president attracting between 39% and 46% of the vote against a variety of potential Republican challengers. Despite those relatively low levels of support, the president has never trailed a Republican by more than three percentage points and has enjoyed double-digit leads in some matchups. But always there are a decent number of voters who say they prefer a third option or are undecided. Currently, among those who are undecided, just 34% approve of the way the president has handled his job, while 64% disapprove. Among those who prefer a third option rather than Obama or a particular GOP candidate, the president’s numbers are even weaker: 13% approve, and 87% disapprove. 

Read the rest of the article with links at Rasmussen