Majority say GOP should take heed of Tea Party positions
Image via Wikipedia...This poll is clearly not good news for Democrats and the President. While the Tea Party portion is interesting, the opposition to Obama/Democrat proposals is significant and provides the Republicans a road map to concentrate on this session.
A new Gallup Poll out this morning finds that 71% of Americans, even many who do not think highly of the "tea party," say it's important that Republicans should take the its positions into account.
Gallup appears puzzled by its findings: While only 6% of Democrats call themselves "tea party" supporters and only 11% hold a favorable view of it, more than half of Democrats still....
... think it's important the GOP work the movement's views into Republican programs. Perhaps some hope the tea party will help weaken the GOP, despite increasing support for the tea party's fiscal conservatism as deficit fears mount. Among Republicans, not surprisingly, 88% say including the tea party is at least somewhat important, while a majority (53%) say it's very important.
Last week, you'll remember, the "tea party" even had its own short response to Obama's State of the Union speech, given by Rep. Michele Bachmann, who formed the House Tea Party Caucus, following the usual GOP response, given by Rep. Paul Ryan, who heads the House Budget Committee.
The dominant media theme, perhaps wistfully, was that this showed a split or, worse a schism, in the GOP. This despite denials all around and an impression among many who listened to the responses that Ryan's broad overview and Bachmann's detailed Perot-like charts complemented each other in a kind of Obama double-team.
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An earlier post-speech Gallup Poll found the president's assertion that the troubled economy is "poised for progress" was rejected by a majority of Americans, who say the economy is actually still worsening. Obama will try his economic pitch again Wednesday on a sales trip to Pennsylvania.
Although historically relatively little of State of the Union speeches actually come to fruition, Gallup found widespread doubts about some other assertions by the Democrat:
They don't like the idea of replacing No Child Left Behind, preferring just revision.
Contrary to the Obama administration's offshore drilling moratoriums, two-thirds of Americans favor a new energy bill to expand domestic exploration and drilling.
The president outlined a vast new program to rebuild what he called a "crumbling" infrastructure. Americans oppose more stimulus spending and think reducing the deficit is much more important.
Americans oppose giving existing illegal immigrants "a path to legal status" and prefer halting the flow of illegal immigrants before addressing the problems of those already here.
And on Obama's proudest achievement, his signature healthcare legislation, only 13% like the idea of keeping it as is. Everyone else favors minor changes, major changes or tossing out the entire thing.
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His energy proposals have significant opposition and the GOP needs to focus more on the strangling of domestic energy production. That is an issue they have not pushed much since 2008, but they should be all over it now as the price of gas is going up.
I found myself in agreement with the majority sentiment in these polls. I am sure the President does not feel the same.
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