Steve Benen: A new Associated Press-GfK poll offers fairly predictable results about public attitudes on the economy: Americans are deeply unhappy … And yet, while Republicans may be encouraged by the dour attitudes, the same poll shows the GOP struggling badly:
…. the growing pessimism doesn’t seem to be taking a toll on President Barack Obama’s re-election prospects … there has been no significant change in the number of people who say he deserves re-election: 47 percent as opposed to 48 percent two months ago. That’s a statistical dead heat with those who favor a change in the White House.
And more Americans still blame former President George W. Bush rather than Obama for the economic distress. Some 31 percent put the bulk of the blame on Obama, while 51 percent point to his Republican predecessor ….. Americans are angry, frustrated, and pessimistic about the economy, but most of the public just doesn’t see Obama as the main culprit.
Indeed, even now, not only are Americans more inclined to blame Bush, the AP poll found that 44% put “a lot” or “most” of the blame on congressional Republicans, noticeably more than the 36% who point to congressional Democrats ….. Republicans aren’t benefiting from voters’ frustrations at all. They remain more unpopular and more likely to get blamed…..
Full post here
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Note the President’s approval rating in this poll: 47%. That’s eight points higher than Gallup’s figure – even Republican Rasmussen have him at 44%.
But guess which figure the media is reporting?
The Obama Diary 
Yes. So I would like to stop seeing statements that Pres Obama isn’t making it clear who caused the crisis. Or not making it clear that Republicans in Congress are blocking him. Most of the American people get it.
That shot is fantastic by the way.
Funny, I am listeningtot Stephanie Miller and she is dicussing an article written by Politicoyesterday, saying that although the dems outraised the repugs, the repugs could still hold their majority in the House and take the Senate. Typical Politico to make a statement like that. I haven’t seen anything to indicate such. David Bender, one of her regulars, said that PBO should fear Rick Perry the most in GE because he has never lost an election, he has that southern swagger and is willing to say or do anything to win. I found that interesting.
What could Perry say that hasn’t already been said about the President at this point by the GOP? What could he do that isn’t already being done by the GOP Governors and voter suppression garbage?
Dems might be outraising Republicans, but in a post-Citizens United ruling world – 3rd Party fundraising matters. GOP SuperPACS get million dollar donations – Dems can’t compete with that.
I wouldn’t bet on the GOP holding the House. A lot of those seats were won in districts Obama won and by as little as a few hundred votes. The Senate really worries me though. We have more seats up than Repubs and even if we keep the majority, it will still be a majority where the ConservaDems have too much leverage.
The more I hear about Rick Perry’s super duper campaigning powers the more I believe he’s going to flame out in the General. He’s never lost an election in TEXAS. This is the big leagues and Obama ‘s already won a presidential election, went through an incredibly tough primary AND has lost a couple of elections (or was it one?) To not have lost is not necessarily a good thing. You learn a lot of from losing once in a while.
We’re losing Conrad’s seat, and probably Nelson’s in Nebraska. So we’re down to 51 with McCaskill, Tester and Virginia seat all essentially coin flips at best. Manchin will have to outperform the President by almost 20 points, so it will depend on his level of challenger.
Kohl retiring probably wasn’t a good thing as it puts Wisconsin in play.
We really need to go hard at Brown in Massachusetts and cross our fingers in Nevada that Berkley can edge out Heller. I think the Nevada Senate race will depend on who is on the GOP Presidential ticket. If it’s Romney than Heller is looking good, however if it’s Perry than Berkley has a good shot at it.
We need someone PROGRESSIVE to primary Ben Nelson’s sorry ass.
Republicans don’t care about the House, and they’ll gladly risk it if it means they increase their odds to take the White House. Because they know they have the Senate to block anything the House passes that is even remotely progressive anyways, and might even take the Senate in the “throw all the bums out” wave.
If Dems take the House, and hold the Senate I hope the Dems replace Reid as Majority Leader to they can essentially undo the agreement between Reid and McConnell that you know McConnell wouldn’t abide by anyways that agrees to no changes in the cloture rules.
The Dems need to run on the inability to do big things, show their 2008-2010 accomplishments and then how nothing has been done in this current congress. Point to ACA, Financial Reforms, DADT repeal and saving the auto industry – all which would have been blocked by the GOP House. How the GOP is all about blocking everything, doing nothing and then blaming the President and Dems for failing to fix the economy when they block anything put to the floor. Point to the GOP being so obstructionist that they block things they’ve been for in the past purely out of political spite without a care in the world about the people they’re negatively effecting.
They need to also point out that the Republicans have endorsed Ryan’s Plan, which is vouchercare. They should repeat this in redstates.
They have. They’ve done TV ads in several dozen House Republican districts along with radio ads.
Not just House Republican district, but states with GOP Senators.
Heller voted for it twice, and that will be well known by the election. Rep Rehberg(challenging Sen Tester) voted against it. Scott Brown voted against it, though voted for cut, Cap and Balance. Rep. Flaake I believe did vote for it, but Dems don’t seem to have any top recruits to run against him in Az.
And this is why we are hearing from the left, right, and the media, that PBO is responsible for the deficit. Mark Knoller’s BS putting all the blame on this President, and the fact that CBS hasn’t apologized for the lie is just the start. They all are afraid of the fact that the voters are smart enough to blame Bush. They will be spinning this until it becomes a fact. sickening.
I noticed something in the above write up that strikes me. Gallup has the president at 43, all others have him at 47 or higher, the MSM is reporting the 43, but ALL other polls have him higher. People STILL blame Bush for the awful state of the economy. The MSM has not reported that faithfully. SO…to me this says something about people’s view of the MSM: I think there is a growing distrust of them and disbelief in them. More and more people are going other places for their news and making up their minds independently of the MSM. If by MSM you mean cable, I think we can label a lot of it what the President does: “cable chatter”
FOX ( refuse to call them news) has their devotees, but if you read the ratings, the audience is shrinking and the demographic is dying. Young people do not get their news or ideas from MSM, and I mean at least forty and younger. My children NEVER watch news broadcasts, cable or otherwise. I think they are average for their age group. I am a creature of the five or six o’clock daily newshour from Walter Cronkite and Huntley/Brinkley days. That is a habit hard to break. But there is a whole new paradigm with younger people. Which is why blogs like this are so important. I introduced my daughter to it last week. She is already working with other Democratic leaning on line groups. That is where young people go.
A couple weeks ago the owner of Gallup complained that PBO’s numbers were too high, then magically his numbers dropped way too much, and continue to drop. There is absolutely no reason for a continued drop, when even Rasmussen has his numbers higher. The fact that the media reports the Gallup rather than the other numbers is suspect. It is this distrust of the media and poll numbers that keep most people away. I agree young people don’t bother with the MSM. They prefer to make their own decisions, not just listen to lies. I believe the majority of people aren’t paying attention at all, they are too busy living their lives.
This is true. Right wingers are going to pour millions of dollars of cash on campaign ads on two dying mediums that the young people seldom bother to watch. That’s why the wingers are doing their d@mnest to keep them away from the polls, and the Koch Brothers are hijacking Universities.
Great article. Gallup really does shoddy and shady polling when it comes to President Obama. First they have a daily tracking poll, then they say that President Obama’s numbers are too high and then all of a sudden it drops down to 38% while GOP backed Rasmussen has him at 44%. Something’s fishy with Gallup.