Posted on 06/22/2009 7:25:31 AM PDT by MaestroLC
While most U.S. voters still blame the Bush Administration for the nation’s economic problems, a growing number are inclined to blame President Barack Obama.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 39% of voters now say the country’s economic problems are caused more by the policies Obama has put in place. That’s a 12-point jump from a month ago.
Fifty-four percent (54%) still say the country’s economic woes are due to the recession Obama inherited from President Bush. That figure is down eight points from 62% from early June.
By a two-to-one margin, voters also have more confidence in themselves than in the president when it comes to the economy. This marks a significant shift from just after Obama took office.
Sixty percent (60%) of voters now trust their own economic judgment more than the president’s. In early February, 49% had more trust in themselves while 39% trusted the president more.
Now only 30% trust Obama more when it comes to the economic issues facing the nation.
Younger voters are more likely than their elders to blame the current economic situation on the recession that began under Bush. The majority of middle income voters place more of the blame on Obama’s policies.
Eighty-two percent (82%) of Democrats see the economic problems as ones largely inherited from the previous administration, while 61% of GOP voters point the finger at the actions of the new president. Unaffiliated voters are almost evenly divided on the question.
Men are more likely than women to trust themselves rather than the president when it comes to the economy. Middle-income voters have more confidence in themselves than those who earn more and less.
The partisan split is predictable. Republicans trust themselves more than Obama by a whopping 75% to 19% margin. The findings for voters not affiliated with either major party are virtually identical. But Democrats are much more closely divided, with nearly half trusting the president more.
Obama’s ratings slipped to new lows at the end of last week in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll, but he continues to be more popular than many of his policies.
Despite strong public opposition, the president has pushed hard for bailouts for General Motors and Chrysler, both now in structured bankruptcies aimed at keeping them in business. The government has taken substantial ownership stakes in both companies in exchange for federal bailout money, but 80% of U.S. voters want the government to sell its stake in GM and Chrysler as soon as possible.
Even as Obama announced earlier this month his intention to speed up the pace of stimulus spending, the plurality of Americans (45%) said the rest of the new government spending authorized in the $787-billion economic stimulus plan should be canceled.
In fact, most voters (53%) continue to believe increases in government spending hurt the economy. Fifty-one percent (51%) favor an across-the-board tax cut for all Americans to stimulate the U.S. economy.
While the president last week was aggressively campaigning for the creation of a government-run health insurance company to compete with private insurers, Americans are evenly divided now over whether that’s a good idea.
Americans are similarly divided on the urgency of moving ahead with health care reform right now given the state of the economy.
Reality is starting to set in for Americans. Obama is not their savior. This is why the Obama Administration is panacking. The jig is up.
NOW we’re getting somewhere!
Here we go - people are FINALLY waking up.
I hope this holds.
Also the 2nd straight day his approval index has been in negative territory.
I can’t see anyway for these numbers to go back “up the hill”. If it’s no longer Bush’s fault right now, it surely won’t be his fault six months from now. This is all downhill for Obama.
the jig is up, the honeymoon is over....finally.
Yet more proof of the power of a biased MSM - had this been a Republican President, the numbers would have been far worse much earlier than this.
Chickens finally coming home to roost... The days of blaming Bush may finally be coming to an end.
How amazing the idiots who voted for 0bama somehow made the leap in “logic” that he was the panacea to all what ails our nation. They were just SURE he would fix the economy, heal the partisan divide, bring racial harmony, roll back the ocean levels, end global warming, walk on water and make the man in the moon smile. I say to them, “Fantasy’s over, folks! Your false prophet is nothing more than exactly what he is... a false prophet.”
Some apolitical and center-left friends of mine are starting to tire of Obama’s daily photo ops and media/show biz swooning sessions. They want someone with their a$$ parked in the Oval Office doing the vital job of professionally managing this increasingly bloated and disconnected federal government.
Don’t hold your breath.
[I hope this holds.]
There is no way the downfall doesn’t gain momentum. Afteer spending trillions, what magic rabbit does Obama now pull out of his hat? He’s fired all the bullets he has in the first four months, it is all downhill from here.
Some of these recent fumbles on the economy and foreign relations HAVE to be laid at the doorstep of Resident (Pres_ent) Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., or Barry Soetero, or Mr Michelle Robinson, or Sock-Puppet, just because he has been out there, front and center, at every possible occasion. He IS the face of America in the world today.
So much so, that people can scarcely recall what George W. Bush even LOOKS like.
“Fifty-four percent (54%) still say the country’s economic woes are due to the recession Obama inherited from President Bush. That figure is down eight points from 62% from early June.”
The follow-up question to this should have been: “How many believe that the economic woes the Bush administration went through in the first year of his Presidency was the result of the Clinton recession?”
“If it’s no longer Bush’s fault right now, it surely won’t be his fault six months from now.”
Obama owns the press, and they will get his message out. They will remind us that it IS Bush’s fault.
HA!!!
Sure nailed it, Bob. LOL
These are encouraging numbers. It’s a start.
I don’t know about 61%, but certainly those who voted for this fraud are blithering idiots. (At least, the ones who were alive...)
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