Sen. John Cornyn commissioned a survey to find out how the people "really" feel about whether or not Republicans should do their job and work with President Obama to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court. He had Greg Strimple, a Republican pollster and former adviser to the National Republican Senatorial Committee check it out and—surprise—he found a majority who want Republicans to stay the obstructionist course.
“The survey found almost unanimous awareness of the death of Justice Scalia, strong support for originalist intent in interpreting the Constitution, and concern over President Obama appointing a liberal justice who would tip the ideological balance of the court,” Republican pollster Greg Strimple wrote in the memo.
Strimple found that 54 percent of those surveyed were more concerned about a liberal justice being chosen to replace Scalia, compare to the nearly 41 percent of respondents who were more worried about the seat being open for a year or more. […]
"Our findings show that a majority of U.S. voters share the concerns of the GOP in regard to tipping the ideological balance of the Court and the need for the next Justice to strictly interpret the Constitution," the memo reads.
I'd love to see the question they asked to find out that there's "strong support for originalist intent" and "concern over a liberal justice." But since it's a privately commissioned poll, designed to give Republicans the answers they wanted, that's not going to happen.
There is a question you can be pretty sure they didn't ask: "How do you feel about Donald Trump making the next SCOTUS nomination?" We have some data on that, thanks to PPP polling. Because it's PPP, they asked: "Would voters prefer Trump or [Tom] Hanks—the ultimate nice-guy everyman actor—to choose Scalia's replacement? They'd prefer Hanks going away, 47-35. Trump or the now-retired [Peyton] Manning? Manning by almost as wide a margin—45-35; hey, he's got time on his hands, right?"
They're going to pretend that part of the equation—Trump getting the Republican nomination—just isn't happening. Sure, you go with that, guys.
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