Thread: Americans don't like what they see in 2012 race

Poll: Americans don't like what they see in 2012 race


By Susan Page, USA TODAY

Updated 2h 21m ago



WASHINGTON – Americans watching the 2012 presidential contest unfold don't like what they see, a national USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds. By wide margins, they say the election process isn't working and the candidates aren't coming up with good ideas to solve the nation's problems.


Fewer than half say there is any candidate running, Republican or Democratic, who would make a good president.

"Americans are recoiling at the political process," says Lawrence Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota. "They see it as out of touch and paralyzed in the face of crushing economic conditions and fear about the future. It's as if the country is on the Titanic and it's going down, and you've got Congress and the presidential field playing violins."

The survey, taken Thursday through Sunday, portrays a nation more downbeat, more dissatisfied with its political leadership and more concerned with the country's direction than at almost any other point in modern times.

That doesn't reflect a lack of concern about the election's outcome.

Americans by 4-1 say it makes "a real difference" to them who is elected president, and a 53% majority strongly agrees that the stakes in this election are higher than in previous years. Almost two-thirds of registered voters are "afraid of what will happen" if the candidate they support doesn't win.

The poll of 1,019 adults, including 898 registered voters, has a margin of error of +/-4 percent age points.

In general election matchups, President Obama edges Republican candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich by precisely the same percentages, 50%-48%.

The findings underscore how much the 2012 election is about Obama, not his opposition. That's disquieting news for the president's strategists, who argue the election should be seen as a choice between two candidates, not a referendum on the incumbent.

By overwhelming ratios, those who support the president say they will cast their votes to support Obama, while by roughly 2-1, backers of Romney and Gingrich will cast their votes to oppose Obama.

None of the seven major Republican presidential candidates has made a predominantly positive impression on Americans. All of them have higher unfavorable ratings than favorable ones, although Romney's favorable rating has risen to 40%, the best he has scored and the highest in the field.
Obama has a 55%-44% favorable-unfavorable rating.

Neither the president nor anyone else in Washington gets high grades for the job done this year.
Just 8% say Obama has done an "excellent" job, a rating given by 3% to congressional Democrats and 2% to congressional Republicans. All three are given a "poor" rating by a plurality of those surveyed: 39% for Obama, 47% for congressional Democrats and 51% for congressional Republicans.

Even their own partisans don't give them good grades: A third of Democrats say Obama did a fair or poor job this year. Nearly eight in 10 Republicans say congressional Republicans have done a fair or poor job, and six in 10 Democrats say the same of congressional Democrats.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politic...terstitialskip

Obama has a 55%-44% favorable-unfavorable rating.

LOL oh that's a laugh! Does USA Today actually believe the propaganda they are putting out? Numerous scientific and certified polls put Obama's approval levels in the low 40% range. USA Today just found a way to jack his score up to 55%? Please corporate liberals, do you really think the American public is that stupid? Well, I guess the Obama supporters might be.

W

I doubt you could find that many that even call Obama by his name let alone. Support him?
The entitlement crew? Yep....The rest he's Dumbo, Obozo, Obummr, and the list goes on..

The press/media is working hard to once again elect Obama,sadly there remain Americans who believe the press one reason it is difficult to have a true conservative run without having him/her tore to bits by the idiots of the press. I have a policy of ignoring the press when it comes to politics I do my own research remember the press is gone in America they is no such thing as an honest unbiased report in todays 24 hour news cycle.

oldguy wrote

I have a policy of ignoring the press when it comes to politics I do my own research remember the press is gone in America they is no such thing as an honest unbiased report in todays 24 hour news cycle.

I totally agree oldguy.