Polls: 70% of Voters Angry Over Direction of Country; WaPo Poll Finds Republicans' Edge on the Generic Ballot Question Has Swollen to +6

The worst reading as far as anger over the direction of the country, ever.

Nearly 7 in 10 Americans are angry at the direction the country is headed and 53% of Americans disapprove of President Barack Obama's job performance, two troubling signs for Democrats one week before the midterm elections, a new CNN/ORC International Poll shows.

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The CNN/ORC poll shows that 30% of Americans are "very angry" and 38% are "somewhat angry" about the way things are going in the country, while 31% expressed "no anger" at all. CNN Polling Director Keating Holland notes the 31% of "very angry" Americans matches the mood of the country in 2010 when Republicans took back control of the House.

The WaPo poll finds the situation similarly parlous for the Democrat party.

Republicans enter the final week of the midterm campaign holding higher ground than the Democrats, aided by public dissatisfaction with President Obama’s leadership, with the overall direction of the country and with the federal government’s ability to deal with major problems, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Driving attitudes is a pervasive sense of a country in trouble. Overwhelming majorities say the country is badly off-track and give the economy negative ratings. Economic expectations are little better today than they were at this time four years ago.

Six in 10 say they cannot trust the government in Washington to do what is right -- the same as a year ago in the aftermath of the government shutdown and the botched rollout of the federal Web site for the Affordable Care Act.

...[A] majority now says the government’s ability to deal with big problems has declined in the past few years. Among those who say this, more -- by 3 to 1 -- blame Obama and the Democrats rather than Republicans in Congress.

Um, ignore that last factoid. Among those who say the government is worse at handling problems, 16% blame the Democrats more, and 6% blame the Republicans more.

Most blame both parties equally.

The difference of 10% doesn't mean much, and shouldn't be hyped up into a "by 3 to 1!!!!" difference.

But the main point -- that most people say the federal government under Obama is worse at governing -- is important.

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When asked whether they will vote for the Democrat or the Republican for the House in their districts, 50 percent of likely voters say Republican and 44 percent say Democrat....

Among independents, Republicans hold a sizable advantage, as they did four years ago. Men favor Republicans by double digits, while women favor Democrats by mid-single digits.

The poll results are here.

27% rate the economy positively; 72%, negatively.

Asked if the federal government is better able to handle problems, or worse at doing so, in recent years (i.e., under Obama), only 11% say it's better able to handle problems. 19% say it's somewhat worse at handling problems, and 34% say it's either "much worse." 53% of the country saying that the federal government is worse at handling problems is not good for the Party of Government.

All this is very general, and I suppose gives no clues to how Senate races will break, except that the undecided voters in these races are living in this pro-GOP, anti-Democrat environment, so we might expect some late-breakers to break for the GOP.

This might be happening now, as a poll today puts David Perdue three points up over Michelle Nunn, and another poll says that Tillis has drawn even with Hagan in North Carolina.

House Democrats, meanwhile, are starting to fear they might lose seats that they never even realized were even in play.

Although there aren't many state legislatures that could flip, those that could flip would flip from Democrat control to GOP control.

posted by Ace at 01:58 PM

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