According to a recent Gallup poll, voters will be sending a message to President Obama—and it may not bode well for Democrats.
Out of the just over 1000 registered voters surveyed, 32% of respondents said that their vote in the midterms would serve as a message of opposition to Obama; in contrast, 20% of those surveyed said that their vote would serve as a message of support.
Gallup’s writeup of the poll explains why this is significant in terms of Republicans’ chances in November:
Gallup first asked this question in 1998, the year Republicans were moving toward impeaching President Bill Clinton for lying about his affair with a White House intern. That year, when Clinton’s approval rating was 63%, more voters said their choice of candidate in the fall election would be made to show support rather than opposition to Clinton. Democrats had a strong showing in that fall’s elections, gaining seats in the House of Representatives, bucking the historical pattern by which the president’s party loses seats in Congress in midterm elections.In the next midterm election, voters by an even larger margin said their vote would be made to support rather than oppose President George W. Bush, who had a 66% approval rating at the time of the elections. These attitudes were consistent with the eventual outcome, as Republicans increased their majority in the House and gained majority control of the Senate.
That’s the shot; now here’s the chaser: out of registered voters polled, 58% Republicans said that their vote would act as a message of opposition to Obama, while only 38% of Democrats polled said their vote would act as a message of support.
By the left’s own standard, every election should serve as a moral mandate to our representatives in Washington; if this is true, and American’s generally do see their vote as an effective way of speaking out for or against not only their elected representatives, but also the party that controls the White House, Democrats could be in serious trouble come November.
Their most loyal constituents thrive in situations where they believe a symbolic gesture translates into real action; if only 38% of them want to take this opportunity to prop up their golden boy, what does that say about their faith in other Democratic leaders like Harry Reid and Dick Durbin?
Republicans will exploit this over the next month as Democrats to their best to flee their association with the President, and neglect engaging the base while they’re at it.
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