Posted on 12/17/2012 5:14:48 PM PST by CutePuppy
A mood of economic gloom hangs over the nation as President Obama and Republican leaders scramble to strike a deficit deal that avoids automatic tax hikes and spending cuts, according to a new poll for The Hill.
The poll, conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, found nearly 6-in-10 people (59 percent) feel the country is on the wrong track. It also showed people are deeply pessimistic about their chances for future prosperity, with 54 percent saying they believe their children will be worse off as adults than their parents.
The poll results cast a shadow over talks in Washington aimed at averting the “fiscal cliff” of $500 billion in tax hikes and $109 billion in automatic spending cuts set to take effect Jan. 1.
Barely a month after Obama won a second term, and even as the nation continues to make modest job gains, fewer than 1-in-3 (31 percent) say the country is on the right track.
Only 34 percent of people feel they will be better off at the end of Obama’s second term than they are right now. And just 16 percent believe a better economic future awaits their children when they grow up.
The dour sentiment is particularly striking among Republicans, who were crestfallen over GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s defeat on Nov. 6.
Among voters who identified themselves as Republicans, 87 percent said the country is on the wrong track and a mere 8 percent said it is on the right track.
Seven-in-10 Republicans believe they will be worse off at the end of Obama’s presidency, and 80 percent said their children’s future is bleaker than their own.
Only 4 percent of Republicans think their children will be better off.
By contrast, Democrats are in a somewhat sunnier — though not overwhelmingly upbeat — post-election mood. Fifty-four percent of Democrats said they think the country is on the right track compared to 31 percent who said it is on the wrong track.
Six-in-10 Democrats, meanwhile, believe they’ll be better off in four years.
But even Democrats are worried about the country’s long-term future. Only 30 percent said their children face a brighter future and 30 percent said they will be worse off.
African Americans — who have endured high unemployment rates throughout the economic recession and recovery — are more upbeat about the country’s future than white Americans, the poll found.
While just 30 percent of whites said the country is on the right track, 44 percent of black voters believe the nation is headed in the right direction.
Similarly, 64 percent of blacks believe their families will be better off in four years compared to just 30 percent of whites. Over the long term, 56 percent of African Americans say their children face a brighter future, compared to 10 percent of whites.
The poll was taken Dec. 13 among 1,000 likely voters and is considered accurate within 3 percentage points.
The poll’s sample was 32 percent Republican, 38 percent Democrat and 30 percent who identified as neither.
Voters are evenly divided in their views on the country’s overall ideological leaning, the poll found.
Twenty-six percent of people said they believe the United States is a predominantly left-of-center nation, while 30 percent feel it is a right-of-center country. Another 25 percent felt the U.S. is neither right nor left.
Among Democrats, only 17 percent said they believe the U.S. is a left-of-center country, compared to 29 percent of Republicans who felt that way.
A near-equal number of Democrats and Republicans (31 percent and 30 percent, respectively) said the U.S. is predominantly a right-of-center country.
The Hill’s poll found a strikingly large number of voters, 59 percent, believe the U.S. is less admired around the globe than it was four years ago when Obama took office. Just 37 percent said the country is much more, or somewhat more, admired than it was four years ago.
When Obama took office, he pledged to try and restore the nation’s international standing, which he felt had been damaged during George W. Bush’s presidency.
Republicans strongly feel the opposite has occurred, with 87 percent saying the country is somewhat or much less admired than it was four years ago. Only 10 percent of Republicans say the country's image has improved.
Sixty-five percent of Democrats say the country is more admired now than when Bush left office, while 32 percent say it is less admired.
I couldn't say it better.
I really think this means that the Democrats and the unions stole the election, with the abetment of the national media.
Aren’t there laws in MN against that sort of expectations?
Apparently these individuals are either government employees or standing in line to get on the public payroll.
But the upside is... they're happy anyway, because the "evil rich" people who earn more than $250K will take it in the shorts, making it "fair."
It was posted here on the FR right after election day.... to find it means someone has to go searching,,,, but its here.
Here is one thread although there seems to be some doubt on the 140% turnout one, but it list many other high turnout areas.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2958011/posts
There are businesses and there are "businesses," there are conservatives and there are "conservatives," there are Republicans and there are "Republicans"...
e.g., from Republicans Stabbed by Business Roundtable - B, by Jim McTague, 2012 December 15
..... Higher rates, the GOP asserts, would slow the economy. The Business Roundtable was a rock-solid endorser of this view until Dec. 5, when it invited the president to address about 100 of its members to make his case for increasing Uncle Sam's paycheck take. The press was booted from the assembly hall when it came time for the CEOs to ask questions of the president. Apparently, he said something they liked. The following week, they endorsed his call for higher personal income taxes on those making $250,000 or more a year. The Business Roundtable, I deduce, had made up its mind before Obama stepped onto its stage. The very act of inviting him to give a televised speech without public rebuttal symbolically told the world that the organization had jumped ship. ..... < snip > ..... I also surmise that the Republicans remain mum because Big Money controls politics. Rare is the bird who can run for office without corporate sponsorship. ..... < snip > ..... Engler's tax-cutting made him a GOP superstar. So, his turning turncoat must have been especially galling to Boehner, McConnell, and many other Republicans. ..... < snip > < snip > ..... The Mordred, or betrayer, is one of the GOP's own sons, former three-term Michigan Governor John Engler, who presides over the über-powerful Business Roundtable, a lobbying organization bankrolled by the nation's corporate giants. This is a delicious tale of intrigue and double crosses that demonstrates how Obama has outwitted the Republican leadership. As Boehner and McConnell have been parrying his skilled thrusts, their supposed allies at the Business Roundtable have critically wounded them from behind. The motive: self-interest. Obama offered to lower corporate-tax rates if the BRT supported his plan for personal income-tax hikes on the wealthy. This development demonstrates the wisdom of the classic quip: If you want a friend in Washington, D.C., get a dog. ..... < snip >
How do you like them apples?
BTW, for the record, it's a well established fact that dogs are man's best friends, and not just in D.C.
They voted for Obama - they have no right to b*tch and complain about America being on the “wrong track.”
Its too late for buyers’ remorse.
Obama’s Communist Method.
Obama stole the election....but to no avail in his favor. He is a lame duck from the gitgo!!! And.....Michelle Obama not attending his visit to Connecticut shows what cold hearted,low life, they both are. This guy....no matter he is POTUS, is going nowhere!!! I guess the call of Hawaii was much more important then the slaughter of innocent children and adults. I am not judging those two, but....the Lord in heaven will send them where they rightfully belong!!! And.....it won’t be with the slain innocents in heaven!!! Go figure!!! Sad times for America!!!
wow. Romney was an exceptionally poor candidate, but I didn’t think he was worse than Bob Dole & McCain might have been skunked if not for Sarah Palin.
Having said that, if anyone here actually believes that 0bama won the last election, I have some beach front property in West Texas I’ll sell ya real cheap.
Carp, maybe we *do* need to legalize pot. This country is *depressed* & needs a laugh, bad.
It takes a special kind of stupid to stick your hand in a running fan, do it again and then complain because your hand got cut off.
Voting fraud is my answer.”
You didnt notice the large number of conservative malcontents not even bothering to vote or support the Rs?
You didnt notice the massive media malpractice of liberal bias that turned Obama’s failures into Republicans fault?
You didnt see the startling exit poll that showed more people blamed BUSH than Obama for our current economic malaise? (After 4 years?!? And Obama’s stimulus was passed in 2009 and was supposed to be the cure-all?!? WTF!?!)
You didnt notice Romney’s campaign incompetence of failing to defend his character against Obama’s lies (’he killed my wife!’), attack obama’s incompetence at home or abroad or tie the horrible Obamacare bill to our economic misery?
Not to mention the ground game screwup, the Akin/Mourdock foot-in-mouth errors, debates run by Obama cheerleaders, and the intervention of Hurricane Sandy and Gov Christie hugging pres O. ...
And the #1 Reason: MILLIONS MORE DEPENDENT ON GOVERNMENT THAN EVER BEFORE JUST VOTED FOR “MORE OF THE SAME” AND AGAINST A GUY WHO CALLED 47% OF US MOOCHERS (um, never mind that it was mainly true, how do you ever get votes by insulting the voters...)
I mean seriously, Romney had a great Debate #1 but was otherwise only a bit better than the two worst candidates we ran in recent decades (McCain and Dole) - while Obama, horrible President, managed to ramp up the votes from the moocher class with the best data-based ground game of any campaign.
No fraud - it was worse than that. We actually had voters dumb enough to vote for this.
They were there. Their votes were just disappeared.
Just ran across this. Very thoughtful....how Obama could have cheated his way into the White House for the second time.
http://www.brushfires-of-freedom.com/steal-an-election.html
Well, in a sense, Obama didn't "win" it - this was the election for Republicans to lose, and the "electable" "successful manager" Mitt Romney managed to lose it in spectacular fashion (e.g., struggling to win NC, when it shouldn't have even been considered a "battleground" / "swing" state and was easily swept by GOP, is just one case).
But if anyone there actually believes that Obama has any kind of "mandate" coming from this election, they didn't read the numbers in the poll.
On the wrong track? Yes, and we’ve been on it long enough to run up a 16 trillion dollar debt that will increase to 20 during BO’s second term.
A debt of that size is not an abstract thing, not simply a bookkeeping entry. It is an awful reality that will bleed us for years to come.
They were there, they just couldn't compete with the Chicago machine.
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