An interesting public opinion poll

A recent public opinion poll found that a majority are willing to consider a “political revolution” to redistribute income from the richest Americans to the middle class.

This includes a majority of Tea Party supporters, of independents and of people who didn’t vote in 2012.

The poll found majorities in favor of raising taxes on the wealthy, raising taxes on corporations, single-payer health care and free college tuition.

But it also found that a majority of Americans think big government is a more serious problem than big business.  Majorities of whites, of blacks and of Hispanics agree on this.

What we were afraid of in 2015

Source: Chapman Survey of American Fears.

Poll watching

Click on xkcd for more cartoons.

Hat tip to Unqualified Offerings.

Obama not yet as unpopular as Bush

As low as President Barack Obama’s approval ratings might sink, Americans say he’s at least better than former President George W. Bush, a new poll shows.

No, not yet

In fact, 48 percent of respondents said that Obama is a better president than Bush, says a Thursday Time poll.   Only 37 percent think that Bush performed better than Obama, while 7 percent put their performances at roughly equal.

While Obama’s approval rating is down to 44 percent, with 50 percent disapproving, many respondents still said they found him “tough” and empathetic.

Despite the fact that 81 percent believe that the country is on the wrong track, when asked whether “Obama is tough enough to be president during these times,” 50 percent of respondents said yes, while 44 percent said no.

Questioned about whether “Obama cares about people like yourself or not,” 59 percent said they felt he did, and 37 percent said they believed he didn’t.

Democrats were also deemed more able to deal with “the main problems the nation faces” over the next few years than Republicans.  Forty-two percent agreed with that notion, while 31 percent said Republicans were better suited.

The poll also revealed that the Occupy Wall Street movement was more widely supported than the tea party movement, with 54 percent of respondents saying they had a “somewhat favorable” or “very favorable” view of the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, while only 27 percent said that same about the tea partiers.

The Time poll surveyed 1,001 adults, 83 percent of whom are self-described likely voters, between Oct. 9 and Oct. 10, 2011.

via POLITICO.com.

Hat tip to Outside the Beltway.

Democrats’ timidity has not paid off

I respect a politician who sticks by principles when they’re unpopular.

I understand a politician who does the popular thing even if it goes against principles.

What I don’t understand or respect are politicians who abandon their principles even when those principles have public support.

Public opinion polls show a majority of Americans would rather have government spending to create jobs than cutbacks in spending to reduce the budget deficit.

They show that a majority of Americans would be happy to allow the upper-bracket tax cuts to expire on schedule.

And they show that a majority of Americans favor tough regulation of the big banks and Wall Street investment firms.

All these are things that President Obama and the other national Democratic leaders say they want. What, then, is the problem?  Why do they hesitate?  Why are they so timid in what they propose?

The Gallup poll in the chart above is just one poll.  Other polls show a more nearly even race, but none of them are encouraging for the Democrats.  But after all, if the Democrats don’t believe in their own platform, why should anybody else?

[Update 9/8/10]  Here’s a new poll with different results.  It shows how volatile public opinion is, or how voters distrust both parties, or maybe what a large margin for error Gallup has.  But my original argument still stands.