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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (91374)	9/20/2010 10:55:42 AM
From: TideGlider	2 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224749

52% of Voters Say Their Views Are More Like Palin’s Than Obama’s Monday, September 20, 2010 Email to a Friend ShareThis.Advertisement Fifty-two percent (52%) of Likely U.S. Voters say their own views are closer to Sarah Palin’s than they are to President Obama’s, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Just 40% say their views are closer to the president’s than to those of the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate. Among the Political Class, however, 68% say their views are more like Obama’s, while 63% of Mainstream voters describe their views as more like Palin’s. Eighty-four percent (84%) of Republicans and 59% of voters not affiliated with either major party say their views are more like Palin’s. Eighty-one percent (81%) of Democrats say they think more like the president. White House Press secretary Robert Gibbs last week said Palin is perhaps “the most formidable force in the Republican Party right now,” but just 22% of all voters agree. Fifty-two percent (52%) do not believe Palin is the party’s most formidable force. Twenty-six percent (26%) aren’t sure. (Want a free daily e-mail update ? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook. The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on September 18-19, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology. Voters are fairly evenly divided in their views of Palin. Forty-eight percent (48%) view her favorably, while 49% hold an unfavorable opinion of her. This includes 21% with a Very Favorable view and 31% with a Very Unfavorable one. This marks little change from last November when Palin was on a national tour to promote her book, “Going Rogue.” However, 76% of Republicans and 52% of unaffiliated voters now hold a favorable opinion of Palin. Fifty-nine percent (59%) of GOP voters said in November 2009 that Palin shares the values of most Republican voters throughout the nation. At the same time, 74% of Republicans said their party’s representatives in Congress have lost touch with GOP voters nationwide over the past several years. Palin’s endorsement has been seen as critical in upset Republican Senate Primary wins in Alaska, Delaware and South Carolina, helping to mobilize Tea Party voters in those states and other races this election cycle. The question now is how valuable is a Palin endorsement in the general election. Sixteen percent (16%) of voters say they are more likely to vote for a candidate who is endorsed by Palin, but 27% say they are less likely to do so. Fifty-five percent (55%) say a Palin endorsement makes no difference to how they will vote. Thirty-four percent (34%) of GOP voters say Palin’s endorsement makes them more likely to vote for a candidate. A plurality (47%) of Democrats are less likely to vote for a candidate endorsed by Palin. Among unaffiliateds, 12% are more likely and 23% less likely. Sixty-three percent (63%) of Republicans think Palin is good for their party, but 60% if Democrats disagree. Unaffiliated voters by a 41% to 36% margin see Palin as good for the GOP. Among all voters, 40% say Palin is good for Republicans, while 39% say she’s bad for the party. Twenty percent (20%) are undecided. One thing’s very clear from the new findings: The Political Class doesn’t like Palin. Seventy-eight percent (78%) of Political Class voters view her unfavorably, while 60% of Mainstream voters have a favorable opinion of the former governor. Eighty-one percent (81%) of voters in the Political Class say Palin is bad for the Republican Party, but 51% of those in the Mainstream say she’s good for the GOP. Forty-eight percent (48%) of all voters now regard Obama’s political views as extreme. Forty-two percent (42%) place his views in the mainstream. Among five top contenders for the White House in 2012, however, only Palin is viewed as more extreme than the president. Just 38% say Palin’s views are mainstream, while 55% regard them as extreme. Voters think Hillary Clinton is more qualified to be president than Obama, but most believe that both Democrats are more fit for the White House than three top Republicans interested in the job, including Palin. Please sign up for the Rasmussen Reports daily e-mail update (it’s free) or follow us on Twitter or Facebook. Let us keep you up to date with the latest public opinion news. See survey questions and toplines. Crosstabs are available to Platinum Members only.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (91374)	9/20/2010 11:04:26 AM
From: tonto	2 Recommendations Respond to of 224749

"The Effects of Fiscal Stimulus: Evidence from the 2009 'Cash for Clunkers' Program," by Atif Mian and Amir Sufi: A key rationale for fiscal stimulus is to boost consumption when aggregate demand is perceived to be inefficiently low. We examine the ability of the government to increase consumption by evaluating the impact of the 2009 “Cash for Clunkers” program on short and medium run auto purchases. Our empirical strategy exploits variation across U.S. cities in ex-ante exposure to the program as measured by the number of “clunkers” in the city as of the summer of 2008. We find that the program induced the purchase of an additional 360,000 cars in July and August of 2009. However, almost all of the additional purchases under the program were pulled forward from the very near future; the effect of the program on auto purchases is almost completely reversed by as early as March 2010 – only seven months after the program ended. The effect of the program on auto purchases was significantly more short-lived than previously suggested. We also find no evidence of an effect on employment, house prices, or household default rates in cities with higher exposure to the program.