Rasmussen…
What
They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key
Polls
Saturday, September 22, 2012
35%
Say U.S. Heading in Right Direction
Generic
Congressional Ballot: Republicans 44%,
Democrats 43%
Senate
Balance of Power: Dems 48 GOP 45 Toss-Ups
7
40%
Believe Economy is Getting Better: Seven
Year High
Mitt
Romney’s newly aired comment that 47% of
Americans are dependent on the government and locked in to vote for
President
Obama has prompted debate all week. Scott Rasmussen argues in his
latest
newspaper column that Romney’s remark like Obama’s notorious comment
about
small-town voters bitterly clinging to their guns and religion
highlights the
condescending attitude the political elites have towards voters. “If he wins the White
House, the only way for
Romney to succeed will be to side with the nation's voters and throw
out the
club in Washington,” Scott writes. “That will be great news for the
country but
bad news for political insiders on both sides of the partisan aisle.”
Romney’s
comments about the 47% naturally
supporting Obama were inaccurate since the figure includes many seniors
on
Social Security. That’s a group where the GOP challenger has strong
support.
However, while clumsy and inaccurate, Romney’s comment tapped into a
strong
underlying belief: 64% of Americans agree that there are too many
Americans
dependent on the government for financial aid. Even most of those who
say they
are currently living in poverty (56%) agree.
But
as Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker explains
on this weekend’s edition of What America Thinks, Scott Rasmussen’s new
nationally syndicated television program: “There are some people, like
the
president, who define success, in government at least, by how many
people are
dependent on the government. … My view, and I think [Romney’s] view and
others’
view of success, is just the opposite: It’s not how many people are
dependent,
rather how many are not dependent on the government. Not because we
kicked them
out to the streets, but rather because we empowered them to control
their own
destiny by getting the private sector back on track and that’s where
real
economic prosperity, and ultimately freedom, come from.”
Walker
will be Scott's first guest on What
America Thinks which among other things will look at whether Wisconsin
is
really in play for Election 2012. This weekend's show is available on
more than
60 stations nationwide. A
longer
interview with Walker will be released online early next week.
Wisconsin
voters are almost evenly divided over
how the governor they almost removed from office is doing these days. Fifty-one percent (51%) at
least somewhat
approve of Walker's job performance, while 49% disapprove.
New
state polling shows the president up by
three in Wisconsin and up two in Nevada.
Obama has jumped to a double-digit lead
in Pennsylvania. Romney
is now up two in Colorado and ahead by
three in Iowa and New Hampshire. All
these states with the exception of Pennsylvania remain Toss-Ups in the
Rasmussen Reports Electoral College Projections.
Nationally, the overall race continues
to be
a toss-up, too, in the daily Presidential Tracking Poll and in the
daily Swing
State Survey.
Voters
still think tax and spending hikes are
more likely under Obama and the Democrats than under Romney and the
Republicans. But
most also don’t expect tax cuts if the
GOP wins the White House and Congress, although spending cuts are now
viewed as
more likely.
Even
with the election just weeks away, most
unaffiliated voters (55%) remain unenthusiastic about the choice
between Obama
and Romney and regard it as a vote between the lesser of two evils.
However,
50% of all voters believe, regardless
of who they want to win, that the president is most likely to win the
election. Thirty-six
percent (36%) see
Romney as more likely to emerge on top. But the president’s 14-point
lead on
that question is down from the 20-point margin he had late last month.
Meanwhile, voters are a little less sure that the GOP will keep control
of the
House and that Democrats will stay in charge in the Senate.
New
poll numbers this week should make
Republicans feel a bit less optimistic about winning the Senate.
Democrat Tammy
Baldwin has edged ahead of Republican Tommy Thompson in Wisconsin. GOP incumbent Dean Heller
is now in a near
tie with Democrat Shelley Berkley in Nevada.
Both states have moved from Safe
Republican to Toss-Ups in the Rasmussen
Reports Senate Balance of Power rankings.
The Virginia Senate race remains a
Toss-Up, but the contest in Ohio has
shifted to Safe Democrat. Incumbent
Democrat Bill Nelson is still ahead in Florida.
Republicans
lead Democrats by one point on the
latest Generic Congressional Ballot after falling behind the week
before for
the first time since January.
Republicans have consistently held a
modest advantage over Democrats on
the Generic Congressional Ballot since June 2009 with few exceptions.
The
economy remains by far the top issue on
voters’ minds as the November elections near.
Health care and government corruption
are a distant second on a list of
10 top issues regularly surveyed by Rasmussen Reports.
Voters
are evenly divided when asked if they
fear the federal government will try to do too much or too little in
reacting
to the nation’s current economic problems.
However, those who fear the government
will not do enough are not
necessarily looking for a more activist government. Among those who
want the
government to do more, 46% want to see cuts in government spending.
Speaking
of more government, the Federal
Reserve Board announced last week that it will attempt to help the
housing
market by buying mortgages to keep interest rates at record lows. But
only 20%
of American Adults believe it is possible for targeted government
programs to
help the housing market. Nearly
half of
Americans expect higher interest rates a year from now
Fewer
than half (47%) of the nation’s
homeowners continue to report that their home is worth more than what
they
still owe on the mortgage. Overall
attitudes about the housing market remain relatively pessimistic.
Nearly
60% of consumers and investors believe
the United States is still in a recession.
National
security remains low on the list of
voter concerns, and most (58%) believe the United States should stay
clear of
the continuing protests in the Middle East.
But voters overwhelmingly rate
protecting freedom of speech as more
important than not offending other nations and cultures despite claims
that the
latest outbreak of anti-American violence is due to an amateur YouTube
video
that mocks Islam…
Read
the rest of the article at Rasmussen
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