What you may have missed in the polls this week
AEIdeas
Debate forecast: A solid majority of Americans, 59 percent, expect Barack Obama will win the presidential debates, says a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll. That response is similar to the proportion that believes Obama will win the election. In the new issue of AEI’s Political Report, around six in ten in a CNN/ORC poll and in ABC/Washington Post poll say Obama will win the contest.
Occupy Wall Street marks its first anniversary on September 17. The new issue of AEI’s Political Report looks at the movement’s standing, and finds that it has gained little traction over the past year. Around two in ten in ten identify with it. The income gap ranks far behind other issues as the top issue for voters this fall.
Convention bounces: Romney got a little or no boost from his convention, whereas President Obama got a small boost from his. The new Fox News poll of likely voters shows a 4-point bounce for Obama in his approval rating, to 50 percent. Polls conducted in the next week to ten days will tell us whether the uptick for the president will last.
Foreign policy and terrorism: Since 2000, in Gallup’s polling, the Republicans have usually had the edge as the party better able to handle terrorism. In Gallup’s latest poll, taken before the U.S. ambassador to Libya was killed, however, people split evenly, 45 percent for the Republican Party and 45 percent for the Democratic Party.
In the new Fox poll of likely voters, President Obama led Mitt Romney on trust to handle foreign policy (54 to 39 percent), to protect the U.S. from terrorist attacks (49 to 41 percent), and to be a strong negotiator with foreign leaders (49 to 43 percent).
Third parties and their candidates: In a new Gallup poll, 46 percent said the country needed a third party, while 45 percent said the Republican and Democratic parties do an adequate job of representing the people.
When Gallup included the names of three third party candidates on its presidential ballot test, 1 percent said they supported Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party candidate, 1 percent Virgil Goode, the Constitution Party candidate, and 1 percent Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate.
Teacher strikes: We could find no new polls on people’s views of teacher strikes, but an Associated Press poll from 2010 found that 51 percent said they had the right to strike while 45 percent said they should not.
American exceptionalism: In a new poll from JZ Analytics, 39 percent agreed more with the statement: “The United States is the world’s indispensable nation. American values are what most people in the world want and the U.S. acts legitimately as the world’s true superpower”. Forty-three percent agreed more with this statement: “The United States has reached its limits as superpower and needs to coordinate foreign policy and protect its interest more in concert with other major regional powers like China, Russia, Brazil, and India as well as with allies and groups like the United Nations and NATO”. Fifty-three percent of Democrats agreed more with the second statement; 55 percent of Republicans agreed more with the first one.
Pay it off: In a new Fox poll, 61 percent of likely voters said it would be better for the country to pay off the national debt now, even if it is tougher and them and their family. Twenty-five percent said it would be better to pay off the debt later, even it means letting future generations pay.
Election: I think it’s Romney’s to lose, no president should expect reelection presiding over an unemployment rate this high and mishandling an economy this badly.
Debate: Obama’s ability is vastly overrated; his inability to beat McCain shows this and his overuse of straw men will avail him little against a live opponent. Romney was even able to smack Gingrich around in the last GOP debate, he’s solid. The expectations and overconfidence of the Left in this area will only produce a greater contrast when Obama loses.
OWS: meaningless bunch of losers.
Convention: can win them all, especially with the press so monolithically in support of one side over the other. Most of the bounce was in deep blue states skewing the average anyway.
Foreign policy: did you hear Obama got bin Laden? Really he did, he directed his security staff to get him and gave the order. I kid you not, he got bin Laden.
Third party: we already have several and people are welcome to support them but hardly anyone does. We’re already a nation divided, I don’t think further dividing us into smaller parts is a good idea.
Teacher strikes: the worse they perform, the less they want accountability measures. It’s logical but not particularly fair to kids. Public unions are a disgrace and have an agenda separate from and often to the detriment of kids and parents.
The Fox News poll is hilarious; it betrays an underlying belief that sometime, somewhere, the USA will “pay off” our national debt. But of course, we never will; it’s just too big for us ever to do so.
Eventually, we’ll default. Default of sovereign debt has occurred over and over again since such things were recorded (and even before). We think we won’t do the same because, I suppose, we think we’re “better,” but we’re not. We’re human beings, and defaulting on our responsibilities is what human beings do when our responsibilities become overwhelming.