What They Told Us: Reviewing Key Polls the week of June 14 - 20.
Much of the action was overseas this past week, with Americans assessing their place in the world amidst global events beyond their control.
Protests over a disputed presidential election flared up in Iran, and a plurality of U.S. voters (43%) say President Obama has wisely kept the United States out of the spat so far. But 35% agree with Senator John McCain that the president has not been aggressive enough in supporting Iranian reformers.
Voters are more concerned about North Korea's development of nuclear weapons and its long-range missile capabilities. Now North Korea has passed Iran to become the country voters view as the biggest threat to U.S. national security.
Even though U.S. troops are actually on the ground fighting in Afghanistan, voters for now rule out the idea of negotiating directly with the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban to bring the war to a close. Voters also feel more strongly than ever that the president will have to send more U.S. troops there.
Despite Obama’s well-received outreach speech to Muslims in Egypt recently, voters are even more conflicted about America’s relationship with the Muslim world. Thirty-two percent (32%) say America’s relationship with the Muslim world will get better in the next year, while 28% say it will get worse.
They’re just as conflicted over America’s future place in the world. Only 31% of voters believe that the United States will be the most powerful nation in the world at the end of the 21st century. Thirty-five percent (35%) disagree and 34% are not sure.
Clearly, much of this sentiment is fed by ongoing economic difficulties on the home front. Twenty-eight percent (28%) of Americans say it’s at least somewhat likely that they will be personally impacted by the closing of General Motors and Chrysler dealerships across the country as part of the ongoing bankruptcies of those two companies. The federal government has a major say in both automakers because of those bankruptcy plans and many members of Congress are complaining about the dealership closings, but 72% of Americans say the companies and not the government should decide which dealers to close.
Most Americans continue to think that the government will do a worse job running a business than private investors.
Registering the same opposition they’ve had to the auto bailouts for months, 80% of voters want the government to sell its stake in GM and Chrysler as soon as possible. Most adults in Michigan (69%) share that belief.
Like the auto bailouts, health care reform as mandated by the policymakers in Washington, D.C. is coming full speed ahead, whether most voters like it or not.
The president is now aggressively campaigning to build support for the creation of a government-run health insurance company to compete with private insurers. Forty-one percent (41%) of Americans think a public insurance option is a good idea, but just as many (41%) disagree.
Obama agreed with the American Medical Association on Monday that tort reform needs to be part of any health care reform effort to keep costs down. Forty-eight percent (48%) of voters say it is too easy to sue a doctor for medical malpractice in the United States today. Forty-four percent (44%) favor a cap on jury awards in such cases. Maybe that’s because most voters think lawyers get more of the money than defendants do from malpractice lawsuits.
Americans are evenly divided on the urgency for moving ahead with health care reform right now, given the state of the U.S. economy. Forty-four percent say the Obama administration should wait on health care reform until the economy improves, but 43% say health care reform should move ahead right now.
Still, Americans' pessimism about their financial security is slowing, according to the latest COUNTRY Financial Security Index(R) for June.
However, the Rasmussen Consumer and Investor Indexes, which measure daily confidence, continue to seesaw as they have in recent months, with no clear trend evident at this time.
Obama’s ratings slipped slightly at week’s end in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll, but the president continues to remain more popular than many of his policies.
The key political news of the week came from Pennsylvania, with the release of early numbers on what is surely to be one of next year’s most closely watched Senate races. Longtime Republican Senator Arlen Specter, who recently switched parties to improve his chances of reelection, leads Congressman Joe Sestak by 19 percentage points in an early look at the 2010 Democratic Senatorial Primary in the Keystone State. Likely Republican nominee Pat Toomey trails both Specter and Sestak in potential match-ups for next year’s Senate showdown in Pennsylvania.
In other polls last week:
-- Perceptions of Judge Sonia Sotomayor and her prospects for confirmation as the nation’s next Supreme Court justice have changed little over the past couple of weeks.
-- The federal Food and Drug Administration will soon have unprecedented ability to regulate the making and marketing of tobacco products. Fifty-one percent (51%) of Americans say more government regulation of tobacco is at least somewhat likely to reduce the number of smokers in this country.
-- Forty-two percent (42%) of voters now believe human activity is the cause of global warming, while 40% say it is caused by long-term planetary trends.
-- Thirty-eight percent (38%) of voters now say the United States is heading in the right direction. But most voters (58%) say the nation is heading down the wrong track.
-- Democratic and Republican candidates are tied for the second straight week in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot. Thirty-nine percent (39%) would vote for their district’s Democratic congressional candidate while 39% would choose the Republican.
-- The vast majority of Americans drive to work, but even the threat of higher gas prices doesn’t seem to be encouraging them much to carpool, take public transportation or buy an energy-efficient hybrid car.
-- Only 16% of Americans say they are more likely to get a flu shot this year because of the outbreak of swine flu.
-- The feud between late-night talk show host David Letterman and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is no laughing matter. Nearly two-thirds of Americans (64%) say it’s inappropriate for comedians like Letterman to joke about the children of public figures.
-- With Father's Day this weekend, the overwhelming majority of Americans remain quite clear that being a dad is serious business. Three-out-of-four (75%) American adults say being a father is the most important role a man can fill in today’s world.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Sunday, June 7, 2009
What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week's (May 31 - June 6) Key Polls
Rasmussen Reports
Saturday, June 06, 2009
Most voters continue to approve of the job President Obama is doing, but, as is often the case, the devil is in the details.
Sixty-two percent (62%) of U.S. voters agree with the president that the nation’s ongoing economic problems are due to the recession that began under the Bush administration and don’t blame the actions Obama’s taken since assuming office.
Fifty-one percent (51%) of voters still say the president is a good or excellent leader, although this number is at the lowest level of his presidency to date. Obama also hit his lowest reading ever in the Rasmusen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll at the end of the week, although it remains to be seen whether this is a temporary reaction to recent news or something more substantive.
When it comes to recent actions by the president, the disagreement grows.
Only 21% of voters nationwide support the government plan to bail out General Motors that kicked in last Monday with the troubled auto giant’s bankruptcy. In survey after survey in recent months, Rasmussen Reports has found that Americans are not in a bailout mood, for GM or anybody.
After the auto giant’s bankruptcy filing, 26% of American adults believed it was a good idea for the federal government to take ownership of General Motors, but nearly as many (17%) Americans should protest the bailout by boycotting GM and refusing to buy its cars.
Just 16% say it’s very likely GM will be successful in the next few years.
The number of voters who believe the economic stimulus plan pushed by the president as his one of his first major actions will help the economy is down to 31% - from 34% in late February and 38% who held that view when it first passed earlier that month.
In fact, for the second month in a row, most voters worry that the federal government will do too much in reacting to the country’s current economic problems.
Voters remain closely divided on the urgency for health care reform, another of the president’s top initiatives, given the troubled state of the economy. Forty-six percent (46%) believe the Obama administration should move ahead with health care reform, while 45% say it should wait until the economy improves.
Support for health care reform has slipped slightly as more voters think the president should work harder on his promise to cut the federal deficit in half in the next four years. However, nearly two-thirds of voters think cutting the deficit that much is the priority Obama is least like to achieve.
While the economy remains the most important issue to voters, health care as an issue has dropped to its lowest level of importance in nearly two years of tracking.
The influential Washington newspaper, The Politico, this week reported the broad outlines of a consensus health care reform plan that has emerged among Senate Democrats, and voters have problems with much of it, according to extensive Rasmussen Reports surveying.
There are parallels to the president’s situation in the ongoing saga of his first nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor. She’s generally regarded favorably and seen thus far as a shoo-in for confirmation, but things become a bit more problematic for her when you get down to specifics.
Over the week since she was introduced to the nation, public support for Judge Sonia Sotomayor has softened a bit, but 88% still say it’s likely that she will be confirmed as the next Supreme Court justice. Sotomayor is also well ahead of the game at this early stage of the confirmation process when compared to President George W. Bush’s high court nominees.
But critics have seized on her comment that a “wise Latina woman” sitting as a judge could reach a different and better decision than a white male judge. Sixty-six percent (66%) of voters nationwide believe that well-qualified male and female judges would reach the same conclusion most of the time. By a virtually identical number (67%), voters believe the same is true of well-qualified white and Hispanic judges.
Sotomayor’s opponents also think her comments suggest that she will be governed not just the law as written but by her sense of social justice in making her judicial decisions. Eighty-three percent (83%) of voters say America’s legal system should apply the law equally to all Americans rather than using the law to help those who have less power and influence.
The president ended the week overseas on a trip that included a highly-publicized outreach speech in Cairo, Egypt to Muslims worldwide. But just 28% of U.S. voters think America’s relationship with the Muslim world will be better a year from today.
Working in Obama’s favor are continuing signs of growing economic confidence. The Rasmussen Employment Index was up in May for the third straight month and at its highest level since last December. It still has a long way to go, though, with worker confidence down 18 points from a year ago.
The Discover Consumer Spending Monitor also rose for the third month in a row in May to its highest reading since last September. Economic confidence among consumers is at its highest level since September 2007.
In the short term, however, both the Rasmussen Consumer and Investor Indexes fell at week’s end.
One test of how voters feel about the president and his party will come in November in the gubernatorial races in two key states, New Jersey and Virginia. New Jersey Republicans in a state primary last Tuesday picked former federal prosecutor Chris Christie to be their candidate against embattled Democratic incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine.
Our first poll on the Garden State showdown shows Christie with 51% of the vote while Corzine is supported by 38%. Also in New Jersey, we’re pleased to note that Rasmussen Reports was the most accurate of all polling firms for New Jersey’s Republican Primary. Our final poll showed Christie up by 11 percentage points and he won by 13.
On Tuesday, Virginia Democrats pick their candidate for governor to run against Republican Bob McDonnell. Look for our first numbers on that General Election campaign later in the week.
In other polls last week:
-- With two of the nation’s Big Three automakers in bankruptcy and the economy still a mess, Americans continue to view corporate chief executive officers as the lowest of the low.
-- The number of Democrats in the nation increased by more than half a percentage point to 39.4% in May. The number of Republicans remained unchanged from a month ago, while the number not affiliated with either major party fell.
-- Democratic and Republican congressional candidates have each lost support from voters this week, but Democrats came in just ahead in the latest edition of the Generic Ballot.
-- Seventy-four percent (74%) of voters say it is unlikely there will be lasting peace between the Palestinians and Israel within the next decade.
-- For the second straight week, 37% of likely voters say the United States is heading in the right direction.
-- The Department of Justice on Tuesday said the state of Georgia cannot check driver’s license information and Social Security numbers to prove that prospective voters are U.S. citizens. Rasmussen Reports polling shows that Georgia’s voters have an entirely different perspective.
-- Conan O'Brien officially replaced Jay Leno as host of NBC's "The Tonight Show" last Monday, but Johnny Carson is still the king of late-night comedy as far as Americans are concerned.
Rasmussen Reports
Saturday, June 06, 2009
Most voters continue to approve of the job President Obama is doing, but, as is often the case, the devil is in the details.
Sixty-two percent (62%) of U.S. voters agree with the president that the nation’s ongoing economic problems are due to the recession that began under the Bush administration and don’t blame the actions Obama’s taken since assuming office.
Fifty-one percent (51%) of voters still say the president is a good or excellent leader, although this number is at the lowest level of his presidency to date. Obama also hit his lowest reading ever in the Rasmusen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll at the end of the week, although it remains to be seen whether this is a temporary reaction to recent news or something more substantive.
When it comes to recent actions by the president, the disagreement grows.
Only 21% of voters nationwide support the government plan to bail out General Motors that kicked in last Monday with the troubled auto giant’s bankruptcy. In survey after survey in recent months, Rasmussen Reports has found that Americans are not in a bailout mood, for GM or anybody.
After the auto giant’s bankruptcy filing, 26% of American adults believed it was a good idea for the federal government to take ownership of General Motors, but nearly as many (17%) Americans should protest the bailout by boycotting GM and refusing to buy its cars.
Just 16% say it’s very likely GM will be successful in the next few years.
The number of voters who believe the economic stimulus plan pushed by the president as his one of his first major actions will help the economy is down to 31% - from 34% in late February and 38% who held that view when it first passed earlier that month.
In fact, for the second month in a row, most voters worry that the federal government will do too much in reacting to the country’s current economic problems.
Voters remain closely divided on the urgency for health care reform, another of the president’s top initiatives, given the troubled state of the economy. Forty-six percent (46%) believe the Obama administration should move ahead with health care reform, while 45% say it should wait until the economy improves.
Support for health care reform has slipped slightly as more voters think the president should work harder on his promise to cut the federal deficit in half in the next four years. However, nearly two-thirds of voters think cutting the deficit that much is the priority Obama is least like to achieve.
While the economy remains the most important issue to voters, health care as an issue has dropped to its lowest level of importance in nearly two years of tracking.
The influential Washington newspaper, The Politico, this week reported the broad outlines of a consensus health care reform plan that has emerged among Senate Democrats, and voters have problems with much of it, according to extensive Rasmussen Reports surveying.
There are parallels to the president’s situation in the ongoing saga of his first nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor. She’s generally regarded favorably and seen thus far as a shoo-in for confirmation, but things become a bit more problematic for her when you get down to specifics.
Over the week since she was introduced to the nation, public support for Judge Sonia Sotomayor has softened a bit, but 88% still say it’s likely that she will be confirmed as the next Supreme Court justice. Sotomayor is also well ahead of the game at this early stage of the confirmation process when compared to President George W. Bush’s high court nominees.
But critics have seized on her comment that a “wise Latina woman” sitting as a judge could reach a different and better decision than a white male judge. Sixty-six percent (66%) of voters nationwide believe that well-qualified male and female judges would reach the same conclusion most of the time. By a virtually identical number (67%), voters believe the same is true of well-qualified white and Hispanic judges.
Sotomayor’s opponents also think her comments suggest that she will be governed not just the law as written but by her sense of social justice in making her judicial decisions. Eighty-three percent (83%) of voters say America’s legal system should apply the law equally to all Americans rather than using the law to help those who have less power and influence.
The president ended the week overseas on a trip that included a highly-publicized outreach speech in Cairo, Egypt to Muslims worldwide. But just 28% of U.S. voters think America’s relationship with the Muslim world will be better a year from today.
Working in Obama’s favor are continuing signs of growing economic confidence. The Rasmussen Employment Index was up in May for the third straight month and at its highest level since last December. It still has a long way to go, though, with worker confidence down 18 points from a year ago.
The Discover Consumer Spending Monitor also rose for the third month in a row in May to its highest reading since last September. Economic confidence among consumers is at its highest level since September 2007.
In the short term, however, both the Rasmussen Consumer and Investor Indexes fell at week’s end.
One test of how voters feel about the president and his party will come in November in the gubernatorial races in two key states, New Jersey and Virginia. New Jersey Republicans in a state primary last Tuesday picked former federal prosecutor Chris Christie to be their candidate against embattled Democratic incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine.
Our first poll on the Garden State showdown shows Christie with 51% of the vote while Corzine is supported by 38%. Also in New Jersey, we’re pleased to note that Rasmussen Reports was the most accurate of all polling firms for New Jersey’s Republican Primary. Our final poll showed Christie up by 11 percentage points and he won by 13.
On Tuesday, Virginia Democrats pick their candidate for governor to run against Republican Bob McDonnell. Look for our first numbers on that General Election campaign later in the week.
In other polls last week:
-- With two of the nation’s Big Three automakers in bankruptcy and the economy still a mess, Americans continue to view corporate chief executive officers as the lowest of the low.
-- The number of Democrats in the nation increased by more than half a percentage point to 39.4% in May. The number of Republicans remained unchanged from a month ago, while the number not affiliated with either major party fell.
-- Democratic and Republican congressional candidates have each lost support from voters this week, but Democrats came in just ahead in the latest edition of the Generic Ballot.
-- Seventy-four percent (74%) of voters say it is unlikely there will be lasting peace between the Palestinians and Israel within the next decade.
-- For the second straight week, 37% of likely voters say the United States is heading in the right direction.
-- The Department of Justice on Tuesday said the state of Georgia cannot check driver’s license information and Social Security numbers to prove that prospective voters are U.S. citizens. Rasmussen Reports polling shows that Georgia’s voters have an entirely different perspective.
-- Conan O'Brien officially replaced Jay Leno as host of NBC's "The Tonight Show" last Monday, but Johnny Carson is still the king of late-night comedy as far as Americans are concerned.
CEOs Still Bring Up The Rear in Public's Opinion
Friday, June 05, 2009
With two of the nation’s Big Three automakers in bankruptcy and the economy still a mess, Americans continue to view corporate chief executive officers as the lowest of the low.
Just as in February, to adults rank CEOs at the bottom of a list of nine professions, below traditional bottom feeders like lawyers, journalists and members of the U.S. Congress. Numbers for all nine are up, but the rankings remain virtually the same.
Just 25% have a favorable view of CEOs, including seven percent (7%) who have a very favorable opinion. But this is actually a small improvement over the earlier survey.
Next is Congress, whose members are viewed favorably by 30%. Four percent (4%) have a very favorable opinion of the legislators.
To put this in perspective, only 23% of voters now think Congress is doing a good or excellent job, but that’s the legislature's highest rating since May 2007.
(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter.
Favorable Ratings for Professions
..........................................Fav .....Unfav .....Rating
People Who Start Own Business ......90% ......5% ......+85
Small Business Owners ................90% .......9% .....+81
Pastors and Religious Leaders....... 80% ......15% .....+65
Bankers................................. 46%...... 48%...... -2
Lawyers................................. 46%...... 49%...... -3
Journalists ..............................42%...... 53% .....-11
.
Stockbrokers and Fin Analysts....... 40%...... 55% .....-15
.
Members of Congress .................30%...... 66%..... -36
CEO's.................................... 25%...... 68%..... -43
Tied for first place in the public’s affections are small business owners and those who start their own businesses. Both are viewed favorably by 90%. Eighty percent (80%) have a favorable opinion of pastors and other local religious leaders.
Although many think the nation’s economic problems really began to gather steam with the near collapse of the financial industry beginning last September, the public doesn’t seem to blame them as much as CEOs. Forty-six percent (46%) have a favorable view of bankers, while 40% say the same of stockbrokers and financial analysts.
Even as the government appeared to be pushing its way into the management of banks this spring, just 11% of Americans said a financial institution will run better if it’s run by the federal government.
But – more bad news for CEOs - most voters said senior managers should be replaced if a company is given taxpayer money to stay in business.
Two other professions that are often the subject of criticism also fare perhaps better than expected in the new survey. Lawyers are rated favorably by 46% of Americans, and 42% give favorable marks to journalists and reporters.
As in much else surveyed by Rasmussen Reports, there are partisan differences of opinion when it comes to these professions.
Thirty-eight percent (38%) of Republicans, for example, have a favorable opinion of CEOs, a view shared by only 11% of Democrats and 27% of those not affiliated with either party.
Forty-two percent (42%) of Democrats view members of Congress favorably, but just 21% of Republicans and 22% of unaffiliateds agree.
Republicans have a more favorable view of local religious leaders and bankers than Democrats and unaffiliated adults do. But Democrats hold lawyers and journalists in higher regard than do the other two groups.
While the public may hold them in the highest regard, small business owners expressed less economic confidence in May, returning to March levels after gains in April.
Friday, June 05, 2009
With two of the nation’s Big Three automakers in bankruptcy and the economy still a mess, Americans continue to view corporate chief executive officers as the lowest of the low.
Just as in February, to adults rank CEOs at the bottom of a list of nine professions, below traditional bottom feeders like lawyers, journalists and members of the U.S. Congress. Numbers for all nine are up, but the rankings remain virtually the same.
Just 25% have a favorable view of CEOs, including seven percent (7%) who have a very favorable opinion. But this is actually a small improvement over the earlier survey.
Next is Congress, whose members are viewed favorably by 30%. Four percent (4%) have a very favorable opinion of the legislators.
To put this in perspective, only 23% of voters now think Congress is doing a good or excellent job, but that’s the legislature's highest rating since May 2007.
(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter.
Favorable Ratings for Professions
..........................................Fav .....Unfav .....Rating
People Who Start Own Business ......90% ......5% ......+85
Small Business Owners ................90% .......9% .....+81
Pastors and Religious Leaders....... 80% ......15% .....+65
Bankers................................. 46%...... 48%...... -2
Lawyers................................. 46%...... 49%...... -3
Journalists ..............................42%...... 53% .....-11
.
Stockbrokers and Fin Analysts....... 40%...... 55% .....-15
.
Members of Congress .................30%...... 66%..... -36
CEO's.................................... 25%...... 68%..... -43
Tied for first place in the public’s affections are small business owners and those who start their own businesses. Both are viewed favorably by 90%. Eighty percent (80%) have a favorable opinion of pastors and other local religious leaders.
Although many think the nation’s economic problems really began to gather steam with the near collapse of the financial industry beginning last September, the public doesn’t seem to blame them as much as CEOs. Forty-six percent (46%) have a favorable view of bankers, while 40% say the same of stockbrokers and financial analysts.
Even as the government appeared to be pushing its way into the management of banks this spring, just 11% of Americans said a financial institution will run better if it’s run by the federal government.
But – more bad news for CEOs - most voters said senior managers should be replaced if a company is given taxpayer money to stay in business.
Two other professions that are often the subject of criticism also fare perhaps better than expected in the new survey. Lawyers are rated favorably by 46% of Americans, and 42% give favorable marks to journalists and reporters.
As in much else surveyed by Rasmussen Reports, there are partisan differences of opinion when it comes to these professions.
Thirty-eight percent (38%) of Republicans, for example, have a favorable opinion of CEOs, a view shared by only 11% of Democrats and 27% of those not affiliated with either party.
Forty-two percent (42%) of Democrats view members of Congress favorably, but just 21% of Republicans and 22% of unaffiliateds agree.
Republicans have a more favorable view of local religious leaders and bankers than Democrats and unaffiliated adults do. But Democrats hold lawyers and journalists in higher regard than do the other two groups.
While the public may hold them in the highest regard, small business owners expressed less economic confidence in May, returning to March levels after gains in April.
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