Posted on 07/23/2008 7:44:50 PM PDT by maccaca
Wednesday, July 23, 2008 Email to a FriendAdvertisement While Barack Obama has touted his travel to the Middle East and Europe this week as a “fact-finding” trip, 63% of Americans do not believe it makes the Democratic candidate any more qualified to be president.
A new Rasmussen Reports national survey, taken Monday night, also finds that less than a third (32%) think Obama will learn from his trip to Iraq. Forty percent (40%) say his mind is already made up about policies to deal with the war there. The Democrat has been accused by liberals in his party of softening his long-standing opposition to the war in Iraq in an effort to appeal to more moderate voters.
Only 39% of Democrats say Obama’s travels this week make him more qualified to be president, while 42% disagree. Eighty-six percent (86%) of Republicans and 67% of unaffiliateds feel the same way. The gap widens when how an individual plans to vote is factored in: 44% of likely Obama voters see the travel as a positive, while 89% of those who plan to vote for McCain disagree.
Fifty-eight percent (58%) of likely Obama voters say he will learn from his trip to Iraq, but 66% of potential McCain supporters say he made up his mind before traveling there. Democrats overall are a bit more skeptical, with 49% saying he will learn on the trip. Among unaffiliated voters, a key bloc in the upcoming election, 28% think Obama will learn from the trip, but 38% think he made up his mind before going to Iraq.
If you look inside the latest polls it blows your mind.
Rasmussen has McCain getting the support of 88 percent of Republicans and with leaners factored in McCain has 91 percent Republican support. Obama has the support of just 74 percent of Democrats and 77 percent of Democrats if you factor leaners in.
Rasmussen says that McCain has a 9 point lead among independents but if you factor in independent leaners McCain has a 23 point lead among Independents. Yet Rasmussen says his poll is a virtual draw.
How could that be true? Well for that to be true 74 percent of Democrats has to be a larger number of voters than 88 percent of Republicans plus 9 percent of independents. Can you imagine that?
The only way this can be true is if Rasmussen is polling 39 percent Democrats 27 percent Republicans and 34 percent independents.
We know that in 2000 and 2004 elections 35 percent of voters were Democrats, and 35 percent were Republicans while 30 percent were independents. If you use the actual figures from 2004 or 2000 then McCain has to have a 12 point lead.
And what are those 23 percent of Democrats who are not for or leaning towards Obama going to do. Sit on their hands?
White working class democrats are about 25 percent of the Democratic party. The ones I talk to are not for Obama. It is not unusual for a significant number of democrats to say at this point that they are not for the democratic candidate. That has happened many times before but they end up voting for the Democrat.
But what blows my mind this time is they say they are going to vote for McCain. And in my experience I have never heard so many Democrats saying they are voting for a Republican. That does not bode well for Obama.
It is not because they like McCain. It is because they are scared to death of Obama.
The Democrat controlled congress has a less than 14 percent approval rating. Can you imagine what the media would be saying if the Republicans were in the majority in congress? The media would be predicting huge losses every hour on the hour. But since it is a Democrat congress they never mention the consequences of the congressional approval rating. But that does not mean it will not cost Democrats on election day.
I can’t help but think that this is a good year to be a Republican.
One final point. Every poll I see says Iraq is no longer a big issue. Every poll says the economy is the big issue. And when you look inside the polls it is the price of gasoline that is the big economic problem that makes the Economy the big issue.
Why then is Obama in the middle east and Europe. Why not at home attacking McCain and Bush for the price of Gasoline? The problem is 65 percent of voters say they want to drill for more oil. And Obama and the democrats are on the wrong side of that issue.
They can’t tell the voters “You think we are wrong on your biggest issue. But vote for me anyway!!!” Obama had best talk about Iraq,the Brandenburg Gate, and getting a French Kiss!!
I think the polls are really being manipulated to favor Obama. I can’t understand why. It is what the people paying for the polls want is my guess.
I hope this reflects a backlash, not only on the media, but on Obama himself.
I might be a cranky, middle-aged broad, but I don’t appreciate anyone telling me who my next president will be without my having even voted yet.
That goes double for the empty-suit geek that, uh, um, uh, gaffed at calling himself the CIC.
The media is alwyas telling us how much power it has. But if you look at the election returns the media supported candidate has lost 7 of the last 10 elections. And the 3 it won took Watergate, and Ross Perot to help the media supported candidate win.
Those that think the media has always had power believe what the media has told them. They need to look at the election returns and they will find out that the media has never been able to defeat or elect a president.
If you want a shock look at the media coverage of Abraham Lincoln. Reading the coverage of the 1864 election there is no way you could believe that Abraham Lincoln won.
FDR got worse coverage than Reagan and he won 4 times. Truman was a lost cause according to the media in 1948. But he won.
There has rarely ever been a time when the media was even close to being as powerful as they claim to be. And the land of defeated candidates is littered with the lost elections of those that believed the media could elect them.
Exactly right. I'm a J-School graduate (hanging head in shame) and the first thing we were taught is Marshall McLuhan's premise that "the media is the message."
I know I don't have to tell you that CT. I appreciate your commentary on FR as a longtime freeper.
I look forward to the day when the MSM no longer dominates the majority of Americans' news consumption. I know it is becoming a reality much sooner than I ever anticipated.
However, my sad group of sisters-in-law continue to watch Oprah and consider her a news source. It will take a lot longer to debunk that claptrap or even get them involved in the workings of the real world.
This poll is encouraging given that there is still time for the Obamassiah to screw up even more. :)
Exactly what I was thinking!
It is true that in 2004 there was roughly a 35% Rep, 35% Dem and 30% Ind split in the final election-day Exit polls. A high-water mark for the Republicans nationally. However the Republicans no longer have parity, they are around 7-9% behind the Democrats in party self-identification. Do not apply the 2004 breakdown to 2008, otherwise you are just blowing smoke up yours and others...
dvwjr
Don’t forget the UN report on racism in America that will be leaked before the election.
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