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What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls
Saturday, September 10, 2011 

This past week may well have been a preview of the headlines for months to come, with Texas Governor Rick Perry coming out swinging on the national stage and President Obama trying once more to give the struggling economy a shot in the arm. Whether Obama can get his new jobs plan to work may go a long way toward determining whether he keeps his job for another four years. 

Making a better life for the next generation has long been the goal of American parents, but just 18% of American Adults believe today’s children will be better off than their parents.  That’s down six points since June. Sixty-seven percent (67%) say they won’t be better off. 

Eighteen percent (18%) of Likely U.S. Voters now say the country is heading in the right direction, down 11 points from a year ago.  Since the third week in July, the number of voters who are confident in the nation’s current course has resembled levels measured in the final months of the Bush administration. 

On Sunday, the Rasmussen Report on radio will feature an exclusive and powerful interview with a woman who was working on the 64th floor of one of the World Trade Center towers when the first plane struck. Scott Rasmussen will also mention our latest 9/11 findings on the 10th anniversary of that tragic day. You can listen on Sunday at 3:06 Eastern/2:06 Central on WMAL 630 AM in Washington, DC, WLS 830 AM in Chicago, or online anywhere. 

Consumer confidence fell in August for the third straight month, as the Discover U.S. Spending Monitor(SM) dropped to its lowest level since March 2009.  Since January, the Monitor which tracks economic confidence and spending intentions of around 8,200 consumers a month has been in a freefall. 

The Rasmussen Consumer and Investor Indexes which measure the economic confidence of both groups on a daily basis rebounded slightly over the past week but confidence is still down from three months ago. 

As for jobs, Americans who have them are staying put and aren’t overly optimistic that the next one would be better anyway. Thirty-eight percent (38%) of American workers are confident their next job will be better than their current one, but 71% aren’t searching for other work.  This is consistent with findings for the last two-and-a-half years. 

Still, the number of working Americans who classify themselves as poor has fallen to its lowest level (10%) in more than two years, while the number of middle class workers (68%) ties the all-time high. A rare bit of economic good news? We’ll see. It’s unclear if these latest findings represent a significant turnaround in perceptions of personal wealth or are just statistical noise. 

After all, just 27% of Americans now believe the U.S. economy will be stronger in one year, the lowest finding in regular tracking since January 2009.  Fifty-two percent (52%) believe the economy will be weaker a year from now. That’s up nine points from 43% in June and represents the first time a majority of adults are predicting a weaker economy in a year. 

But like most everything these days, political persuasions color perceptions of the economy. Seventy-five percent (75%) of Republicans nationwide say the U.S. economy is in poor shape, and 68% of those not affiliated with either major party agree. However, data from the Rasmussen Consumer Index shows that just 49% of Democrats think the economy is in poor shape.  The same perception gap can be found throughout the data. 

When it comes to key national issues, however, 73% of all Likely Voters nationwide trust the American people more than their political leaders.  Only 10% trust the judgment of their political leaders more. Seventy-three percent (73%) believe that government and big business work together against the rest of us, a point former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin hammered in a speech in Iowa last weekend. 

Palin, it appears, is the only one who know for sure whether she’ll run for president, but she continues to run worse against Obama than the four top Republican hopefuls already in the race.  In their latest hypothetical matchup, the president earns 47% of the vote to Palin’s 35% 

Confirming a surge seen in polling across the nation, Perry has moved into first place among Republican voters in Iowa, host state to the first-in-the-nation caucus early next year.  The Texas governor is the first choice for 29% of those likely to participate in the Iowa GOP Caucus. Essentially tied for second are Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann at 18% and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney at 17%. Texas Congressman Ron Paul picks up 14% of the vote. 

Most voters are paying at least some attention to the race for the Republican presidential nomination, but just a plurality (41%) thinks the existing primary process is a good way to select a party’s candidate.  Twenty-nine percent (29%) believe the primary process is a bad way to select a presidential nominee, but just as many (30%) are undecided. 

As the GOP race gathers momentum, voters overwhelmingly believe the media’s more interested in playing “gotcha” with those running for president than with airing out where they stand on the important issues of the day.  Only 16% think the media is more interested in where prospective presidential candidates stand on the issues. Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich charged in a debate this past week that the media is trying to stir up controversy to protect the incumbent. 

The president, meanwhile, continues to earn some of the lowest job approval ratings of his time in office in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll.  A generic Republican candidate hits the highest level of support to date against Obama in a hypothetical 2012 election matchup for the week ending Sunday, September 4.  The generic Republican picks up 49% of the vote, while the president gets 41%. 

Voters are evenly divided over whether the president’s political views are best described as mainstream or extreme.  Voters also give mixed opinions about the Republicans vying for his job. But former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is seen as closer to the mainstream than either the president or Perry, the current GOP frontrunner. 

Although Obama on Thursday evening outlined a jobs plan that couples tax breaks with spending cuts, most voters continue to believe government spending will go up under his administration.  They also don’t believe taxes will go down on his watch. 

But a sizable majority of voters favor across-the-board spending cuts in the federal budget, although they remain slightly less enthusiastic about including the military in those cuts. 

Even recent Hurricane Irene has Washington talking about cutting government spending. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has proposed that new federal spending for Irene disaster relief be offset by spending cuts elsewhere in the budget, and a plurality (43%) of Americans thinks that’s a good idea.  Thirty-six percent (36%) oppose the idea, but another 21% are undecided. 

Republicans post a seven-point lead over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot for the week ending Sunday, September 4.  The GOP has led on the ballot every week since June 2009. 

Read it with links at Rasmussen