Survey Reveals Republicans Expect Obama's Plans To Fail

By Jonathon Moseley

Echoing criticism by conservative leaders like Rush Limbaugh, most Republicans expect Barack Obama's policies to fail at fixing the economy. A new survey finds that Republicans and Democrats have dramatically different expectations about America's economic future. Among Democrats, 57.44% answer that they are "optimistic about the economy" while only 25.36% of Republicans express that same optimism.

It appears that Democrats trust their choice for President to fix the economy, yet Republicans do not expect Obama to succeed. The optimism of Democrats, however, also suggests they agree with Obama's assumptions that government spending of borrowed money will somehow stimulate the economy.

Meanwhile, favorable opinions of President Barack Obama dropped 20% from January 21 to March 9. Since inauguration day, Obama's favorable rating fell to 55.8%. Only 37.43% of Americans support "the trillion-dollar bailout" which "President Obama signed into law."

The fact that Democrats are twice as likely as Republicans to expect economic recovery indicates faith that President Obama's plans will succeed. Many Republicans doubt that Obama's programs will help the economy.

Among Barack Obama's supporters, 63.88% support Obama's trillion dollar bailout. Only 5.65% of Obama opponents support the bailout. (The survey attempted to distinguish Obama's own program from President Bush's earlier bailout last Fall.) However, concerns about losing their job are equal regardless of political beliefs.

Among those with a favorable opinion of President Obama, 54.53% were "optimistic about the economy" compared with only 18.07% of those unfavorable to Obama. However, those worried about America's economy would probably be less satisfied with the President in any event. An unfavorable opinion of Obama may simply reflect economic worry. Yet the clear difference between Democrats and Republicans shows that supporters of the President believe his strategy for the economy will succeed.

On other topics, the so-called "Fairness Doctrine" was a loser across the board, with only 34.34% of Obama supporters and 15.41% of Obama opponents agreeing. The "Fairness Doctrine" would require balanced content in radio and TV broadcasts, which conservatives say would indirectly destroy conservative talk radio by requiring content listeners don't want, already available in the mainstream media. Furthermore, 80.22% of those with an unfavorable opinion of Barack Obama support US efforts in Iraq, compared with 38.06% among Obama supporters. Among Obama opponents, 92.5% identified themselves as "anti-tax" while 78.5% of Obama supporters agreed. Traditional marriage won the support of 88.51% of Obama opponents and 50.50% of even Obama supporters.

Males and females showed no differences in their expections, once party affiliation was set aside. The survey of 50,000 households across the U.S. mainland was conducted on March 9, 2009, by ccAdvertising based in Herndon, Virginia, and released March 20, 2009. The households were randomly selected from a database of 120 million records balanced by regional population density, with a 70% completion rate.