Poll Arising Positions

Time to go into the weeds on this month's WSJ/NBC News presidential poll (PDF) and take a look at the internal numbers.

First of all, while strong enthusiasm for President Obama isn't great (29% see him as very positive, 48% positive overall) or for the Democratic Party as a whole (14%, 37%) they are both ahead of Mitt Romney (9%, 33%) and the GOP (10%, 31%).  George W. Bush (13% very positive, 36% overall positive) has better personal numbers than Mitt right now.  That should terrify the GOP.

The country's still split on the role of government in helping people, 49% think the government should do more, 47% think government should do less.  Given how bad things are right now for most Americans, that's notable.

People are also split (45% D to 44% R) about which party they want to see in control of Congress.  It makes sense considering it's a split Congress now.

72% of Obama leaners are voting for the President, whereas 58% of Romney voters are voting against POTUS instead.  Literally the GOP could have fielded a child's crayon drawing of a pot-bellied pig with wings and more than half of the party would have backed the piece of paper  against the President in this election.

The numbers on what the President's religion happens to be really hasn't changed in 4 years.  About 8% still think he's a Muslim, and 40% don't know. 43% believe he's Christian.  67% know Mitt Romney's a Mormon though.

Only 1% of respondents think of "outsourcing jobs" when they hear Mitt Romney.   I'm thinking that number will go up.  10%think "Good businessman".  However, 9% of respondents think "Lack of experience" for Barack Obama.  How long does he have to be President, one has to wonder.  19% combined mentioned health care, as a positive, a negative, or as a neutral fact about him.  It's his legacy from this term, certainly...even more than the economy (15%, all negative).

Dems get a major advantage overall on the middle class (+19%), Medicare (+14%), health care (+13%), Social Security (+12%) , but Republicans get big advantages on government spending (+17%), the deficit (+12%) and terrorism (+9%)...and yes, the economy overall too (+6%).  Both parties fail on Wall Street/bank oversight and taxes, and split on upward mobility.

The country is divided into thirds on if President Obama's economic policies have helped, hurt, or made no difference.

More people think our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (63%) have contributed a lot to our deficits, than the recession (56%).  Congratulations, America, you're actually right on this one...but only 26% have tagged the biggest cause of deficits in recent years as a big deficit offender:  the Bush tax cuts.  More people (28%) think the problem is Medicare/Social Security and other government programs.  Boo.  When it comes to naming the biggest single deficit reason, 47% blame the wars, 21% the stimulus (eyeroll) and only 15% the recession.  7% blamed again the correct answer, the Bush tax cuts.  Yikes.

Health care reform numbers basically haven't changed in two years:  35% think it was a good idea, 41% a bad one, 22% no opinion.  55% believe if SCOTUS strikes down the ACA insurance mandate that it will make no difference on their lives.  Oy vey.

Overall it's an interesting picture to say the least.