Independents Back Obama Over GOP on Key Issues

Barack Obama was able to beat Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination thanks to the support of independents, and continues to out-perform the Democratic Party in many polls due to their support. (One example of this is here). Greg Sargent points out Obama’s support in a  Washington Post-ABC News poll. Sargent received a partisan breakdown which shows that  independents trust Obama as opposed to the Republicans on the big issues:

* On health care, 51% of indys trust Obama, and 26% trust GOPers in Congress.

* On the economy, 51% of indys trust Obama, and 31% trust the GOP.

* On the budget deficit, 52% of indys trust Obama, and 30% trust the GOP.

* And on terrorism, 53% of indys trust Obama, and 36% trust the GOP.

He also noted that the poll shows that “GOPers are strongly aligned with their leadership” on the key issues. This makes it harder to see how the Republicans can break their downward death spiral in which they support extremist views which are supported by their base but which makes them unelectable in national elections.

13 Comments

  1. 1
    Fritz says:

    Wow.  Those “trust” numbers are stunningly high.
    But these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West.

  2. 2
    Mike Hatcher b.t.r.m. says:

    People trust Obama but people don’t know his policies on key issues. According to this poll,Obama scores highest on the issue of Terrorism. And what is his policy on that? Let me guess, he is against terrorists and terrorism. Today there is a massive piece of global warming legislation to be voted on in the house. I’m still clumsy about noting sources but here is the link. http://usliberals.about.com/b/2009/06/26/mired-in-global-warming-politics-waxman-markey-bill-should-be-passed.htm
    This is a liberal site that states the bill is 1,200 pages in length. The site also states that Obama has been on both sides of this issue. So Obama plays both sides, authors of the bill like Waxman do bait-and-switch-classical BAM!! 300 more pages, now 1,500 pages in length..don’t read the changes! Just vote! now,now,now!! I guess this matters not as probably few if any read the first 1,200, why worry about dumping 300 more to it? But so many of us trust the man on issues when he never details the issues, just broad, play both sides of the fence generalities.

  3. 3
    Ron Chusid says:

    Are you kidding? Replacing Republican policies which are counterproductive on terrorism with someone who can respond to such problems rationally was a key reason to vote for Obama over the Republicans.

    There are plenty of conservatives who will repeat nonsense that Obama does not detail the issue or takes both sides but this is just political spin. Typically such arguments come from people who don’t even know Obama’s views, or if they do they prefer to respond with such spin as opposed to rational comments.

  4. 4
    Mike Hatcher b.t.r.m. says:

    …conservatives who…
    Ron- I just gave you a link to a liberal blog that says Obama is on both sides of global warming. If you check out the site and conclude it is not liberal, or if you dispute the claim of that blog, ok,I’ll immediately back down because I admit I didn’t completely research this, but I was looking for info on today’s legislation and this is what I found.

  5. 5
    Ron Chusid says:

    I see, that was about.com, not an actual liberal blog but not a conservative in this case. Apparently this is not a conservative (although the line about Obama not being clear on the issues typically comes from conservatives), but it is hardly anyone whose claims about Obama carry any weight. Glancing at this it looks like the real objection here is that Obama isn’t taking a position extreme enough for some environmental groups. That is hardly the same as not having a position or taking both sides of the issue.

  6. 6
    Fritz says:

    I’m stunned, even with my pretty cynical opinion of humans, that a majority of independents trust Obama on the deficit.  I am NOT saying that the percentage trusting Republicans should be higher than it is.

  7. 7
    Christoher Skyi says:

    “On the budget deficit, 52% of indys trust Obama, and 30% trust the GOP.”
     
    Yeah, this shows how much the “common man” knows and why these types of “trust” polls are more about popularity, and Obama is a very likable popular guy. Plus he’s competing against the GOP, which is almost no contest.
     
    But — is Obama doing any better on the deficit that GWB or the neo-cons.  No — team Obama is, on it’s current course, pushing us over a cliff. See: America’s Fiscal Train Wreck by Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns:
     
    “Here’s the question:  can the U.S. run up a huge deficit now as long as it shows a credible plan to reduce it over the long-term?  I have suggested that healthcare (and social security) be a main target of that longer-term deficit reduction plan.  But, is this a trade-off that can actually work?
     
    I think a technical recovery will happen in the Q4 to Q1 timeframe.  But this recovery is likely to be weak, if it happens at all.  Downside risk remains, i.e., a second recession after a very weak recovery. Unfortunately, the Obama administration has fired all its bullets, spending huge political capital bailing out the big banks and putting together a weak stimulus package we all knew was going to fail.
     
    The problem is the U.S. government budget deficit. In April, in a post called “The Cult of Zero Imbalances,” Marshall Auerback made the case for stimulus, aware of the downside risks for the dollar and bond prices because of that deficit. Yes, there are risks for America associated with deficit-inducing stimulus in the short-term, but they can be mitigated if the Obama Administration actually showed a plan to reduce the longer-term deficit.  But, as David Leonhardt has argued, Obama’s team has no deficit reduction plan whatsoever.
     
    So now we must contemplate America’s fiscal train wreck; and that is exactly what Richard Berner at Morgan Stanley is doing.  Here is an excerpt of his research note published today.
     

    America’s long-awaited fiscal train wreck is now underway.  Depending on policy actions taken now and over the next few years, federal deficits will likely average as much as 6% of GDP through 2019, contributing to a jump in debt held by the public to as high as 82% of GDP by then – a doubling over the next decade.  Worse, barring aggressive policy actions, deficits and debt will rise even more sharply thereafter as entitlement spending accelerates relative to GDP.  Keeping entitlement promises would require unsustainable borrowing, taxes or both, severely testing the credibility of our policies and hurting our long-term ability to finance investment and sustain growth.  And soaring debt will force up real interest rates, reducing capital and productivity and boosting debt service.  Not only will those factors steadily lower our standard of living, but they will imperil economic and financial stability.

     
    Later in his missive, Berner, rightly admits that economists warning about deficit spending in America have been singing this tune for quite some time.  And, as with he boy who cried wolf, no one believes them any longer. No less than former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said “deficits don’t matter.”
     
    Well, they do matter.  Eventually, the day of reckoning will come.  Berner puts it this way.

    Some are concerned that our reckless fiscal policy will trigger a downgrade of the US sovereign debt rating, making the financing of our burgeoning deficits more difficult.  While worries that the US will default on its debt are illogical, global investors and officials are concerned about the credibility and the sustainability of our fiscal policies.  So am I.  They fear that we will adopt policies that will undermine the dollar and the domestic value of dollar-denominated assets through a combination of risk premiums and inflation.  I worry about that too, although such policies probably would be accidental rather than deliberate.  As a result, interest rates may have to rise significantly to compensate investors, including reserve portfolio managers and sovereign wealth funds, for such dangers.  While the dollar will for now retain its reserve-currency status, such concerns put it at risk.

    Definitely read his piece which is linked below.  He does an excellent job of demonstrating that healthcare is a large part of the problem and sounding the alarm for fixing it once and for all.
     
    Source
     
    America’s Fiscal Train Wreck – Dick Berner, Morgan Stanley
     
     
     
     

  8. 8
    b-psycho says:

    What about all the people who trust nobody on the budget?

  9. 9
    Christoher Skyi says:

    Well I think when you’re going to run deficts as large and as long as the current party in power, yet as David Leonhardt has argued, Obama’s team has no deficit reduction plan whatsoever, then you know you can’t, shouldn’t trust them.
     
    Who do you trust?  People who are realistic about the deficit and deficit spending:
    http://www.concordcoalition.org/
    http://www.freedomworks.org/
     
    Rational budget management is the best way to judge how competent administration is.
     

  10. 10
    Christoher Skyi says:

    This just i:
     
    Poll Shows Liberal Democrats in Trouble, But Republicans Still Need a Makeover
     
    I think the hand has been tipped, the cat is out of the bag — Obama is governing way more left of center than most hoped (i.e., me), and the radical left is pushing hard for more radical left-ness:
     
     
    “Being back in power has not been “all good” for the Democrats. “A statistically significant increase” has occurred in the number of Americans who think the Democrats are “too liberal” according to the latest Gallup poll.
     
     
    Gallup said the increase, from 39 percent to 46 percent, puts the number at its highest level since November 1994, when the Contract with America produced an historic GOP landslide that gave the Republicans control of Congress for the first time since the Eisenhower administration.

     
    “The increasing perception of the Democrats as too far left comes as President Obama and the Democrats in Congress have expanded the government’s role in the economy to address the economic problems facing the country,” Gallup said, seeking to explain why voter attitudes toward the majority party are changing.”
     
    The good news (for liberals)?  People still don’t really like the GOP.

  11. 11
    Christoher Skyi says:

    Not only is team Obama starting starting to hear more and more about what union loving liberals they are (and yeah, they kind of are), there also the charge/worry of incompetence.
     
    This just in from the Big Picture Blog:
    “I read articles like these with dread and horror:

    “As the White House begins to ponder whether to reappoint or replace Ben Bernanke when his term expires in January, the Federal Reserve chairman’s standing on Wall Street is on the rise while attacks on him from Congress mount.
    Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is expected to play a key role in advising President Barack Obama on whether to reappoint Mr. Bernanke. Mr. Geithner has worked closely both with Mr. Bernanke and with the leading alternative for the powerful post — Lawrence Summers, the former Treasury secretary, who is currently the president’s top economic adviser.
    Before making a decision later this year, the White House also is expected to look at other economists, including Roger Ferguson and Alan Blinder, former Fed vice chairmen; Janet Yellen, president of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank; and Christina Romer, chairman of Mr. Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers.”

     
    So help me God, if Obama nominates this incompetent, lacking-in-judgment jackboot to the FOMC chair, then in 2012, I will write in George W. Bush’s name for President . . .”
     
    Yup, that would be the tipping point for me too . . .

  12. 12
    Christoher Skyi says:

    John Stewert’s monologue on 7/2/9 nails it in terms of capturing the general sentiment of people, i.e., “Obama’s really cool, but . . . ah . . .  when am I going back to work?
     
     
    I have a hunch team Obama won’t be around for a second term — the Democratic congress may lose it’s majority in the midterms. Why? Check this post out about the need for a second stimulus and why Obama most likely won’t get one:

    http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/07/does-us-need-second-stimulus-package.html
     
    Clearly, the economic situation is much worse than Obama’s team predicted back in January.  It is leading to rising unemployment and grim statistics on things like consumer default rates.  So, if the $787 billion stimulus package was based on a rosy economic scenario that never happened, it goes to reason that this stimulus bill was too small, as Laura Tyson, Obama’s economic advisor argues.
     
     
    Yet, some economists like Mark Zandi of Economy.com agree with Biden that we should take a wait and see approach. Of course, the wait and see modus could be a disaster as stimulus should take six to nine months to kick in.  If the economy falters in Q4, say, a stimulus might be forthcoming in Q1 2010 with effects coming on line late in 2010 – not a very good scenario for politicians in Congress looking to get re-elected.
     
    It’s going to be a flat recovery, a job-less recovery, for the rest of the year. If we (God help us) get a second dip recession near the end of the year, there will be hell to pay and it’s Obama and the Democrates who people will go after.
     
     
    While I’m no liberal, I’d hate to see them lose power for that reason because the economy affects all of us (esp. me!!! :), so I’d love to see things turn out well — but I don’t think they will. See this scary post:

    http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/04/guest-post-fake-recovery.html
     
     
    “In truth, the U.S. banking system as a whole is probably insolvent. By that I mean the likely future losses of loans and assets already on balance sheets at U.S. financial institutions, if incurred today, would reveal the system as a whole to lack the necessary regulatory capital to continue functioning under current guidelines.”

  13. 13
    Christoher Skyi says:

    And this (sort of hot) off the AP wire:
     
    Obama tax pledge unrealistic
     
    Ouch!
     
    Obama’s press secretary is going to be busy tomorrow . . .

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