Posted by
Defend America on Thursday, November 12, 2009 10:18:02 AM
A Year Out, Widespread Anti-Incumbent Sentiment
Obama's Afghanistan Rating Declines
Overview
The mood of America is glum. Two-thirds of the public is
dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country. Fully
nine-in-ten say that national economic conditions are only fair or
poor, and nearly two-thirds describe their own finances that way – the
most since the summer of 1992. An increasing proportion of Americans
say that the war in Afghanistan is not going well, and a plurality
continues to oppose the health care reform proposals in Congress.
Despite
the public’s grim mood, overall opinion of Barack Obama has not soured
– his job approval rating of 51% is largely unchanged since July,
although his approval rating on Afghanistan has declined. But opinions
about congressional incumbents are another matter.
About half (52%) of registered voters would like to see their own
representative re-elected next year, while 34% say that most members of
Congress should be re-elected. Both measures are among the most
negative in two decades of Pew Research surveys. Other low points were
during the 1994 and 2006 election cycles, when the party in power
suffered large losses in midterm elections.
Support for congressional incumbents is particularly low among
political independents. Only 42% of independent voters want to see
their own representative re-elected and just 25% would like to see most
members of Congress re-elected. Both measures are near all-time lows in
Pew Research surveys.
http://people-press.org/report/561/anti-incumbent-sentiment