Mar 09 2010
America In Revolt Over DC Shenanigans
I don’t think I have ever seen across the board poor marks for Senators as shown in the PPP poll released today. PPP babbles on about how 40% approval ratings now are not the death knell for candidates, it is the new 50% (must be that new math kicking in, the same garbage that created global warming and the middle class ‘rich’). In reality what the numbers show is the revolt brewing outside the beltway is broad and bipartisan. Check out these numbers:
| Senator | Approval Spread [difference] |
| John Thune (R-South Dakota) | 57/35 [+22] |
| Mark Warner (D-Virginia) | 53/31 [+22] |
| Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) | 52/36 [+16] |
| Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) | 51/36 [+15] |
| Susan Collins (R-Maine) | 48/30 [+18] |
| Jeff Bingaman (D-New Mexico) | 48/36 [+12] |
| Tom Udall (D-New Mexico) | 48/36 [+12] |
| Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) | 48/41 [+17] |
| John McCain (R-Arizona) | 48/42 [+16] |
| Richard Durbin (D-Illinois) | 47/39 [+8] |
| Tim Johnson (D-South Dakota) | 46/45 [+1] |
| Herb Kohl (D-Wisconsin) | 45/35 [+10] |
| Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) | 45/37 [+8] |
| Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) | 44/29 [+15] |
| Tom Carper (D-Delaware) | 44/31 [+12] |
| Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) | 43/35 [+8] |
| Jon Kyl (R-Arizona) | 43/40 [+3] |
| Jim Webb (D-Virginia) | 42/40 [+2] |
| Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) | 42/45 [-3] |
| Kit Bond (R-Missouri) | 41/34 [-3] |
| Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) | 40/37 [+3] |
| Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia) | 38/43 [-5] |
| John Ensign (R-Nevada) | 38/44 [-6] |
| Johnny Isakson (R-Georgia) | 36/38 [-2] |
| Frank Lautenberg (D-New Jersey) | 36/45 [-9] |
| Harry Reid (D-Nevada) | 36/58 [-22] |
| Richard Burr (R-North Carolina) | 35/35 [0]** |
| Mark Begich (D-Alaska) | 35/51 [-16] |
| Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey) | 34/45 [-9] |
| John Cornyn (R-Texas) | 32/30 [+2]** |
| Kay Hagan (D-North Carolina) | 29/42 [-13] |
| Jim Bunning (R-Kentucky) | 29/44 [-15] |
| Mark Pryor (D-Arkansas) | 29/46 [-17] |
| Chris Dodd (D-Connecticut) | 29/57 [-18] |
| Blanche Lincoln (D-Arkansas) | 27/62 [-35] |
| Joe Lieberman (I-Connecticut) | 25/67 [-42] |
| Ted Kaufman (D-Delaware) | 24/22 [+2]** |
| Roland Burris (D-Illinois) | 14/60 [-46] |
I added the difference numbers to illustrate why 50% is still the safe majority number in two way races. 15 of the Senators are green in this category because, even if they are below 50%, the gap between their approve/disapprove numbers is large enough to get them over the top in a two way race. I am not seeing someone with a 45% approval being at risk when their disapproval rating is 10% lower.
It is when the approve/disapprove get within 5% points of each other things look to be bad, and most of the Senators fall into this category. If disapproval turns into energetic opposition at the voting booth, then there is a real risk the voters will jettison the incumbent.
There are three senators with ** marks, showing a slim margin but also huge numbers of people who are  not picking either approve or disapprove. This means these candidates could easily win depending on the mood of the undecideds. What this leaves is 19 senators in clear and obvious deep trouble.
In any event, the erosion in support is definitely bipartisan, though it is clear the majority party is taking a majority of the anger from the American people. And this is only March.
I am still wondering when this crowd of arrogant incompetents will get the message and REPRESENT the wishes of America. Â They can begin by stopping Obamacare once and for all and starting over, as Americans across this land have been demanding.
The problem with Senators is that they have years before they have to listen to their constituents. Take Mark Begich as an example – he’s in office till 2014 no matter what he does or what his consituents think. Why should he worry? He’s got the option of either waiting til the summer of 2013 and trying to put on a charm offensive, or else he can just decide the political climate is too harsh and retire to be a Washington lobbyist the rest of his days.
In fact, if wants to set up a lucrative career as a lobbyist, then the more corrupt he is as a senator and the more he sells out his constituents, the better his future earnings potential will be.
And this is the root cause of so many who go to Washington and forget where they came from – it always pays, now and in the future, to sell out the chumps back home.
AJ,
The Obama Administration has found yet another way to piss off older, middle class, white men in blue states then need in Nov 2010 and 2012.
See below:
http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/03/obamas-latest-assault-on-freedom-new-regulations-will-ban-sport-fishing/
Hey everyone.
Obamacare cuts billions from medicare. Why are we not hearing about senior citizen revolt? I cannot recall a single story in the past several weeks.
Why the quiet?
AJ,
The Democrats’s next election is their primary, and a 50% plurality of all Democratic voters and a solid majority of motivated Democratic Party primary voters believe in the public option, even if it causes people to be dropped from private insurance and forces onto a “public option” health plan.
See:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/rasmussen/20100308/pl_rasmussen/healthcarereform20100308
and
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/february_2010/47_oppose_public_option_health_plan_58_oppose_if_workers_forced_to_change_coverage
Support for the government-run insurance plan is highest among voters ages 18 to 29, and that support is unwavering even if workers might be forced to change coverage. Voters in this age group are also the only ones who think the choice of a public option is more important than guaranteeing that no one is forced to change their coverage. They’re also the only age group that thinks it would be good for employees to be forced into a government plan.
Sixty-seven percent (67%) of Democrats favor the public option. Seventy-four percent (74%) of Republicans and 51% of unaffiliated voters don’t.
Opposition among GOP voters and unaffiliateds is even higher if creation of a public option encouraged companies to drop existing coverage of their employees. Fifty percent (50%) of Democrats still think it’s a good idea.
While Republicans and unaffiliated voters feel strongly that guaranteeing no one is forced to change their current coverage is more important than the creation of a public option, Democrats are narrowly divided on the question.
If a company dropped its private coverage and their workers were enrolled in a government-run plan, 61% of GOP voters and a plurality (48%) of unaffiliated voters say that would be bad for the employees.
Democrats by a 46% to 29% margin say it would be good for the workers.
This is not a matter of left, right or center.
It is a matter of pure partisanship.
Partisan labels do matter a great deal on health care and we are seeing the logical results of a Democratic majority government.
Democrats will do this every time there is a Democratic Party majority government because Democratic politicians have to survive their primaries before they can get to the general election.
The American Public has to be reminded of this every generation or so.
>>Why are we not hearing about senior citizen revolt?
The name for that revolt is “Tea Party.”
Talk to the MSM hand about reporting it.
The Democrats will see exactly what that ‘Senior Revolt’ means in the 2010 and 2012 election returns.
If Obamacare does not pass by the March deadline the next deadline will be July 4th. After that it will be memorial day… thanksgiving day….Christmas……New years 2011 and finally before “swearing in day” January 2011.