The Polling Report [4.4.13]
NATIONAL–PARTY APPROVAL–Quinnipiac: The Republican Party is approved of by 28% compared to 52% who disapprove. Democrats have a more positive, but still under the water, approval rating of 38% to 44%. Voters also give Republicans in Congress a negative 19% to 71% job approval, compared to a negative 34% to 59% for the Democrats in Congress.
NATIONAL–PRESIDENT–REPUBLICAN PRIMARY–Quinnipiac: Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R) 19, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin (R) 17, Kentucky U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R) 15, New Jersey Gov. Christopher Christie (R) 14, Florida Former Gov. Jeb Bush (R) 10.
“Three years before the nominating process, the Republicans have no clear favorite,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “Sen. Marco Rubio benefits from his exposure giving the GOP response to the State of the Union while Congressman Paul Ryan is known as the Republican vice presidential candidate. But history tells us being the running-mate on a losing ticket does not help one’s presidential chances. The last three Republicans in that spot were Sarah Palin, Jack Kemp and Dan Quayle, while the Democrats in that role were John Edwards, Joe Lieberman and Lloyd Bentsen.”
NATIONAL–PRESIDENT–McClatchy: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D) 52, Rubio (R) 40; Clinton (D) 52, Paul (R) 41; Clinton (D) 54, Bush (R) 38.
NATIONAL–PRESIDENT–McClatchy: Vice President Joe Biden (D) 53, Rubio (R) 39; Biden (D) 50, Paul (R) 41; and Biden (D) 49, Bush (R) 41.
LOUISIANA–GOVERNOR–APPROVAL RATINGS–Southern Media & Opinion Research: Gov. Bobby Jindal’s (R) approval rating dropped from 51% in October to just under 38% in March due to voter dissatisfaction with state fiscal and education policies. The poll shows President Obama is currently more popular than Jindal in the state, eking ahead of the governor by five points.
NATIONAL–FEDERAL BUDGET DEFICIT–Marist: 50% of voters nationally have more faith in President Obama than in the Republicans in Congress to handle the issue. This compares with 41% who have more faith in the Republicans in Congress to make the correct choices and 8% who trust neither the president nor the Congressional GOP.
NATIONAL–MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION–Pew Research: A majority of Americans favor legalizing the use of marijuana, 52% to 45%.
“Support for legalizing marijuana has risen 11 points since 2010. The change is even more dramatic since the late 1960s. A 1969 Gallup survey found that just 12% favored legalizing marijuana use, while 84% were opposed.”
NATIONAL–IMMIGRATION–Washington Post-ABC News: 57% of voters support a path to citizenship for undocumented workers, but that number is just 35% among self-identified Republicans. Among self-described “conservative Republicans,” the numbers are even more negative, with just 30% supporting the idea.
At the same time, Democratic support is reaching new highs — moving up to 73% from 68% in February — and 84% of self-identified liberal Democrats support providing a path for undocumented workers to gain legal status.
NATIONAL–GUN CONTROL–Morning Joe/Marist: Six in 10 respondents – including 83 percent of Democrats, 43 percent of gun owners and 37 percent of Republicans – believe that the laws covering gun sales should be stricter. 87% of Americans support background checks for private gun sales and sales at gun shows, and 59% favor legislation that would ban the sale of assault weapons.”
NATIONAL–ECONOMIC PRIORITIES–Morning Joe/Marist: Americans – by nearly a 2-to-1 margin – want President Barack Obama and Congress to make job creation their top priority (64 percent) instead of deficit reduction (33 percent). Those who prefer Washington’s political leaders to emphasize job creation include 76 percent of Democrats and 46 percent of Republicans; a narrow majority of Republican respondents (51 percent) want the focus to be on deficit reduction.
NATIONAL–FEDERAL BUDGET DEFICIT–Morning Joe/Marist: President Obama edges congressional Republicans by four percentage points, 44 percent to 40 percent, on the question of who has a better approach to deal with the federal budget deficit. 42% of respondents prefer a mixture of spending cuts (including to entitlement programs) and revenue increases; 35 percent pick increasing mostly revenue; and just 17 percent choose mostly cutting government spending (including to programs like Medicare and Medicaid). In case you didn’t notice, that means 77% of respondents approve of the Democratic approach compared to just 17% for the Republican approach.
Interesting, given all the spin, how poorly Jeb Bush does against Hillary Clinton.
I love Hillary Clinton. I really do. I hope/think she will be the next President.
That said, The same philosophy that caused me to take a keen interest in the senator with a funny name almost 10 years ago (wow) causes me to wish there was someone else on the D bench. (im not talking literally… i mean, who actually has a chance) Are there truly no other rising democratic stars from a different family?
Im going to vote for her. Im going to volunteer for her. She’s 90% what I would want in a candidate/president…. It’s just that 10% of a desire for “new blood”.
Ben,
There are new blood candidates waiting on our bench, but they are being overshadowed by the prospect of a Hillary Clinton candidacy, because everyone knows that 90% of the Democratic base would be solidly behind her in a primary, representing a molding of her 2008 supporters and Obama’s 2008 supporters.
Martin O’Malley, Andrew Cuomo, John Hickenlooper, Kirsten Gillibrand, Amy Klobuchar, Brian Schweitzer, Mark Warner, Elizabeth Warren, and Julian Castro all come to mind. If Hillary died tomorrow, the race would probably be Biden and most of the aforementioned, with one of the aforementioned winning.
I’ve heard the background check number even higher than that. Also, c’mon GOP. You can get to 20% approval if you really want it.
My desire is to marginalize the far right into non-existence. Part of the strategy to achieve that is to deny the GOP the White House as long as necessary. My choice a candidate is the person that will win the WH. Hilary can and would win.
There are qualified people in the GOP but until RWNJs are castrated, there is little point in supporting them. I have been seriously considering registering as an R just to be able to support the most whacked out far right candidate for all offices in every election so that there are stark differences in the candidates and everyone else can see how extreme the RWNJs are. The only problem with that plan is that one of them might get elected – Jeff Christopher did!
I agree completely Dave.
Well, not about the registering as a Republican party. I would feel forever unclean.
Another Dismal jobs report as George W. Bush heads into his 4th month of his 4th term. 88,000 jobs created last month, however, unemployment did fall to 7.6%, as 500,000 people (That is 1/2 million people) pulled out of the work force. It is amazing to me how during Bush’s capitalist years, (first 2 terms of his presidency, he was able to average around 5.5% unemployment, even after the effects of September 11th. But somehow, once he turned to socialism, at the very beginning of his third term, he has averaged well over 8% unemployment, hard to figure. Just can’t see why he turned to socialism in his third and 4th term.
Yes ladies and gentlemen, you are viewing the beginning stages of the effects of out and out socialism. Obama has a different word for it, he calls it “headwinds”.
“Another Dismal jobs report”
Exactly as Keynesians predicted would be the result of cutting the federal budget. Just as it is doing in Europe.
“once he turned to socialism, at the very beginning of his third term, he has averaged well over 8% unemployment”
Just curious: As stupid as you are, is it difficult to remember to breathe? You might have heard about this thing called “the recession” that struck right at the end of Bush’s second term. You also might have heard — though I doubt it — that unemployment is a lagging indicator during a recession, so the full effect of the recession on unemployment wasn’t felt until Obama was in office.
Now run along and let your mommy see if your diaper needs attention.
In a proper Keynesian stimulus, after the recovery begins we are supposed to cut spending and raise taxes. You rarely see that back half of the strategy, but Obama has pulled it off. Although the spending cuts will suppress jobs, the gathering recovery is supposed to create positive growth to continue the recovery, which is exactly what we are seeing.
We’ll need to see a few more of these jobs reports to know if the positive growth will overcome the hit from the spending cuts.
I suspect not. The tax giveaways on the cliff deal put too many holes below the waterline. I hope I’m wrong.
“In a proper Keynesian stimulus, after the recovery begins we are supposed to cut spending and raise taxes.”
In a “proper” Keynesian stimulus, unemployment goes down as the economy recovers. In a “proper” Keynesian stimulus, the amount of government spending is large enough to effect a clear recovery.
“You rarely see that back half of the strategy, but Obama has pulled it off.”
Just about as well as FDR “pulled it off” in 1937, causing a recession.
Page 1 of Rusty’s playbook is: when the numbers are bad, change the subject. When that subject makes you look worse, obfuscate or change the subject again.
It can’t be a playbook; Rusty doesn’t read well enough to follow a playbook. It must be on youtube somewhere.
Geezer – there is always the possibility spending was cut too soon. And, unemployment actually has gone down as the economy recovers. Too slow, but in the right direction. The question now is whether the recovery can be self-sustaining, or will the spending cuts kill it. We can have our opinions but we won’t really know until the next jobs report.
We won’t know then, either, but I see nothing that makes me think following Europe’s path won’t have the same result.
Whether or not I can read, or I am stupid, is not the point, and xstryker, You guys telling me that I change the subject when the numbers look bad, is like the pot calling the kettle black.
Now, as Warner Wolf used to say, lets go to the video tape. Bush ran 7.5 years of his Presidency post 9/11. He still averaged about 5.5% unemployment. Obama has thus far run about 4.25 years of his Presidency post financial meltdown. He has averaged well over 8% unemployment. For his Presidency to average the same as Bush’s, he would have to average about 2.75% unemployment for the rest of his Presidency starting with next month. I don’t quite see that happening, do you? So he has been an utter failure. Worst President in the History of the Country. And as far as any of you believing in Keynesian economics, I have some ocean front property for sale in Kansas that you might be interested in.