Wednesday polling edition.
SHRM/National Journal poll:
60 Percent Disapproval Of GOP Leaders
Republican congressional leaders have sought to frame the upcoming midterms as a referendum on Democrats and their ability to govern, but six in 10 Americans have a negative view of the very GOP chiefs making the argument. That level of GOP unpopularity leaves the Democrats some campaign leverage against their GOP critics with less than a month to go before Election Day.
Dems clock in at 53, but 60? No one likes Republicans.
More confirmation of the CT Sen race:
BLUMENTHAL STRONG: Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has widened his advantage over Republican wrestling executive Linda McMahon to 15 points, the Democrat’s internal tracking poll shows. The Democratic firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner has Blumenthal holding steady with a majority of the vote and leading McMahon, 53 percent to 38 percent. The pollster notes in a memo that McMahon’s public image remains deeply problematic, and "large numbers of Connecticut voters hold unfavorable views of McMahon." Her favorability rating in the survey was 32 percent, while 47 percent said they had an unfavorable impression of her. The poll tested 600 likely voters on Oct. 3 and 4.
When I say people don't like Republicans, that goes for Linda McMahon.
Mark Blumenthal with more on "likely voters":
More important, does anyone know what the heck a likely voter is anymore?
That question is arguably the most important polling story of the year.
That it is, and more to come about it.
WaPo:
For all the fanfare and publicity that accompanied the [Pledge to America]'s release, relatively few Republican candidates nationwide appear to be adopting it as a guiding vision, much less incorporating it into their campaigns.
There is a simple reason. It's because the pledge is a miserable failure.
NY Times:
Third Way, an organization of centrist Democrats, produced a study showing that liberals are the smallest share of the electorate and not enough to keep Congress in Democratic hands. Citing Gallup polling data, the study said self-described conservatives made up 42 percent of the electorate, compared with moderates who make up 35 percent and liberals who make up 20 percent, a shift of several points to the right in the last two years.
In 16 of 21 hotly contested states, Democratic candidates who simply match Mr. Obama’s overall 2008 performance still will not have enough votes to win, according to the group’s study. Instead, the study said, the candidates must outperform Mr. Obama among moderates.
Daniel Gross:
When the Federal Reserve reports figures on consumer credit, despite the dry prose, we conjure up visions of shoppers throwing their Visa cards into public bonfires. "Household debt contracted at an annual rate of 2 1/4 percent in the second quarter, the ninth consecutive quarterly decline," the central bank reported last month. The outstanding balances of revolving credit accounts — i.e. credit cards — peaked in 2008 at a little less than $1 trillion, and have fallen for 22 straight months, to $827 billion in July 2010.
It’s a great story — if you believe it.
In fact, though, since the Lehman Brothers debacle in September 2008, the nations’ total indebtedness has continued its inexorable rise, some measures of consumer debt are starting to rise again and the easy-money, no-money-down culture still prevails in crucial sectors.
Oh, and a look at the data suggests that the decline in personal debt is driven less by Americans giving up on credit cards than on credit card issuers giving up on Americans.