Pew Poll: Republicans Don't Like Their Leaders

[Hissyspit]

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/3/16/23643/0776/459/709417

Pew Poll: Republicans Don't Like their Leaders
by DemFromCT

Tue Mar 17, 2009 at 07:40:03 AM PDT

We've seen for weeks in the Daily Kos Research 2000 tracking poll that Republican Congressional leaders are not popular. Mitch McConnell, for example, gets a 48/21 fav/unfav from self-identified Republicans and John Boehner gets an anemic 38/24, and Congressional Republicans get a 50/33. Contrast that with the 69/22 Democrats give Congressional Dems or the 70/12 Nancy Pelosi gets (Harry Reid is 59/19, still higher than anything on the other side of the aisle.)

We've seen in the Gallup poll (and ours) that the small drop in Obama's numbers (now 61%) are due to disaffected Republicans, that independents give Obama a 59% job approval, and that overall, he's running the same or better as Bush or Clinton at this point. We know Republicans think different than indies or Democrats at this point in time.

Now Pew weighs in, with a poll showing a 5 point drop in numbers for Obama compared to Feb, but still with a robust 59%. However, the bigger story is that the support for Republican Congressional leadership, including amongst Republicans is abysmal. Overall approval of GOP leaders in Congress is 28%, with 26% from independents.

There are no signs in the poll that Republican congressional leaders are benefiting from the public’s concern about major economic policies. In fact, approval of Republican congressional leaders has fallen from 34% in February to 28% currently, the lowest rating for GOP leaders in nearly 14 years of Pew Research surveys. Republicans, in particular, have become less supportive of their party’s leaders in Congress: just 43% of Republicans approve of their job performance, down from 55% just a month ago. By contrast, nearly half of Americans (47%) approve of the job Democratic congressional leaders are doing.

In addition, no single Republican figure, either in Congress or elsewhere, has emerged as the party’s leader. When asked who they think of as the leader of the Republican Party, 73% either say they do not know (58%), or volunteer that there is no leader (15%). John McCain is mentioned most frequently, but just 11% name the Arizona senator as leader of the Republican Party.

- snip -

Overwhelming majorities are at least bothered by both policies (87% banks, 83% mortgages), but a 48% plurality says bailing out banks and financial institutions that made poor financial decisions makes them angry. Fewer (39%) say they are angry about bailing out homeowners who took out mortgages they could not afford.

A majority of Americans (60%) say that Obama is doing as much as he can to improve economic conditions compared with 30% who believe he could be doing more. Opinions about his predecessors' efforts on the economy were much more negative. In nine surveys between 2002 and 2004, no more than 48% (in January 2002) said George W. Bush was doing all he could to improve the economy. And in two 1992 surveys, just 21% said former President George H.W. Bush was doing all he could on the economy.

Republicans divide evenly on this question: 42% say he is doing all he can while about the same percentage (44%) says he could be doing more. Among independents, 52% say Obama is doing all he can on the economy and 37% say he could be doing more. By a wide margin (83% to 14%), Democrats believe Obama is doing all he can to improve economic conditions.

- snip -

With the drop in GOP approval, the gap between public evaluations of Democratic and Republican congressional leaders is the largest Pew has recorded over the past eight years in which both party’s leaders have been evaluated...



LINKS AT DKOS LINK

[Mnemosyne]

1. And neither do we! KnR n/t

[Ilsa]

2. If I was a Republican, my best marks would

go to Meghan McCain and Bristol Palin for their honesty.

[11 Bravo]

3. That makes it unanimous. Neither do Democrats nor Independents.

[Laelth]

4. Republicans have leaders?

Funny. I haven't seen any lately.

:rofl:

-Laelth

[Liberal_in_LA]

5. We don't like them either