New poll identifies clear way to distinguish Barack Obama backers from John McCain's

When it comes to rating the economy, there is no wavering among Americans, as reflected in the findings of a new L.A. Times/Bloomberg poll: 81% say it is doing either "fairly badly" or "very badly."

That's up from 76% in a comparable August poll, with the uptick coming in the "very badly" category. A month ago, 44% characterized the economy that way; now, the number is 52%.

In other words, more than half of all Americans essentially currently see the economy as in the tank.

Attitudes were less dire when those surveyed characterized their personal economic situation. And the responses to this question, as The Times' Doyle McManus notes in his story on the poll, showed a clear correlation to preferences in the presidential race.

When asked whether they felt less secure financially than they did six months ago, exactly 50% of the respondents said yes while 49% said no (most of these said they felt no different, with a relative handful saying they were in better shape).

Among those feeling less secure, a solid majority favored Barack Obama, while about a third backed John McCain. The candidate leanings were almost precisely reversed among those who did not view their finances as shakier than they were in the spring.

-- Don Frederick

Comments

[BJ]

So voters who are in worse financial shape tend to favor Barack Obama, whereas the opposite favor McCain.

What happened to the claim that Obama voters are the better educated, higher income, "latte" consuming segment of the population?

Perhaps with the crisis on Wall Street, more Obama supporters have been affected. It never pays to gloat or put people down. Hopefully this teaches us to be more respectful of one another, no matter what our standing is in society.

With the proposed Wall Street bailout, each taxpayer is affected equally.

[scootmandubious]

Looking forward to seeing John McCain now tell everyone that Newsweek, like the New York Times, is part of a Democratic conspiracy.

I have the latest developments in the Rick Davis scandal (which gets bigger by the hour), plus I posted the racist John McCain ad that kicked off this scandal in the first place (it was folks angered at the ad, coming forth).

It's at:
http://scootmandubious.blogspot.com/2008/09/john-mccains-fannie-flak.html