Rasmussen: 59% think Obama is more liberal than themselves (How does this translate in November?)

Hotair ^ | 03/12/2012 | Ed Morrissey

[SeekAndFind]

Rasmussen has two polls out today, but neither have anything to do with Alabama or Mississippi. In surveys conducted last week and released today, 59% of likely voters nationwide consider Barack Obama more liberal than themselves — and only 37% identify more closely with Obama than with his Republican rivals. Let’s start with ideology:

The number of voters who consider President Obama more liberal than they are has risen this month to its highest level since last October.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 59% of Likely U.S. Voters now think, in political terms, that the president is more liberal than they are. That’s up from 52% last month and an all-time low of 51% in December. In March 2011, a high of 61% felt the president was more liberal.

Eleven percent (11%) feel the president is more conservative than they are, and 25% say his views are about the same as their own.

To give people an idea about the overall survey, almost a majority (47%) say that Congressional Republicans are more conservative than they are. Only 19% said that they are about the same (25% said that about Obama). This doesn’t appear to be a case of Republican bias in the sample. Only 52% of Democrats said that Obama was “about the same,” with 20% saying he was more liberal and 19% more conservative. Almost two-thirds of unaffiliated voters say that Obama is more liberal (65%) compared to 20% who say about the same and 12% who think he’s more conservative than themselves.

That presents a big obstacle towards attracting voters and running as a moderate in the next election. What happens when Obama competes against all four remaining Republicans in the primary fight? He gets nearly twice as much support as any individual candidate, but barely clears the one-third threshold:

Ask voters which presidential contender’s views are more like their own, and just 37% say President Obama. Most (53%) say they think more like one of the four Republican presidential hopefuls.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 16% of Likely U.S. Voters say when it comes to the important issues facing the nation, their views are more like former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s. An identical number (16%) say they think more like Rick Santorum. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Twelve percent (12%) say their views are more like those of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, while nine percent (9%) say the same of the views of Texas Congressman Ron Paul. Only four percent (4%) believe that none of the top contenders for the White House in November fills the bill when it comes to the important issues of the day, and six percent (6%) are undecided.

This comes from a survey done separately from the one above, but it tends to corroborate it. While the Republican field is divided, Obama tends to look better by comparison. Once one Republican wins the nomination, Obama will be in deep trouble unless either he or circumstances dramatically change. He does slightly worse among independents (30%), the “other” ethnic demo (29%), seniors (33%), 50-64YOs (36%), and especially bad in the middle-class income ranges of $40-60K and $60-75K, where he gets 27% in each.

Obama only wins majorities among Democrats (only 77%!), black voters (75%), self-described liberals (86%) and moderates (barely at 50%), and the political class (71%). Needless to say, a Democrat who couldn’t carry a huge majority in most of these demos wouldn’t have a prayer of winning an election anyway, and the Republican candidate isn’t going to win many votes among self-described liberals and the political class. The overall picture these polls paint, though, is of a President who has gotten far out of the mainstream, and who will be very vulnerable in the fall if Republicans can unite around a single candidate.

[FrankR]

[ScottinVA]

Unless somehow voters can be convinced that freebies and other gifts extracted from the government are BAD things... this statistic means nothing.

[SMGFan]

I must admit that I wonder if they can explain in what ways ( or even one way) Pres. Obama is more liberal than they are. On which social and/or economic issues do they know Pres. Obama is more liberal than they are.

[Peter ODonnell]

Conclusion — 41% of Americans are crazy.