In what must be heartening news to the Obama Adminisrtation, Quinnipiac is out with a new poll showing solid majority support for the President's choice for the Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor:
American voters approve 54 - 24 percent, with 22 percent undecided, of President Barack Obama's nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today.
An interesting number I found in this poll is the number of people who think Judge Sotomayor is liberal, but support her anyway:
- Would you say that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is more liberal than you would like, not liberal enough, or about right?
Tot Rep Dem Ind Men Wom
More liberal 30% 56% 6% 34% 37% 25%
Not liberal enough 5 4 7 5 5 5
About right 42 20 67 35 37 47
DK/NA 23 20 20 27 21 24
34% of Independents think she is more liberal than they would prefer but she still gets approval from independents 50-26. In other words, among those crucial independent voters, I'd guess that they would have accepted Obama appointing a true liberal. Probably because they expect him to appoint whomever he chooses, and that they trust his judgement. But also, i suspect, because the country is gradually moving leftward with Obama pulling so many independents and moderate republicans into the fold.
Of note:
Voters are split about whether senators debating Sotomayor's confirmation should consider her views on issues. A plurality, 42 percent, think her views are about right while 30 percent think she's more liberal than they would like and 5 percent think she's not liberal enough," Brown said.
About 7% of Democrats think she's not liberal enough, 5% of Independents think she's not liberal enough, and 4% of Republicans (???). This tells me that public thinks she's got the right ideological leanings for the job, in spite of all this talk that she's a racist.
That is a question I'd love to see asked. In light of Cornyn's recent pushback, I suspect the polling doesn't look good for Newt and Rush.