Monday, March 12, 2012

Republican opinions

Sigh. Another national primary election. Which means polls. Which means I get to be reminded of my neighbors' opinions.

Surveying likely Republican voters in Mississippi, PPP found 22% believe in evolution, vs. 66% who don't; 52% think Obama's a Muslim, vs. 12% who think he's Christian (and 36% "not sure"); and 54% who think interracial marriage should be legal, vs. 29% for illegal and 17% "not sure." (That last number is dragged down heavily by 65+ voters, only 35% of whom think it should be legal.)

More sensibly, only 24% favor Barbour's last-minute pardons (62% against). But his favorability numbers remain high, +64/-27. (Women respondents: only 17% favor pardons. They've noticed what sins Barbour considers venial.)

... Via Weigel. Interestingly, Santorum isn't polling well here, 3d place behind a Romney-Gingrich dust-up. For a 70% self-described Evangelical Christian body of voters, that's curious - tho I guess if you're fundamentalist enough, Roman Catholics aren't much better than Mormons. (How many voters know Gingrich is Catholic? that would've been a good one to ask, besides the Obama question.) Gingrich is really hurting Santorum by staying in.

... I should add that I'm not at all convinced that a poll of Democratic voters would've been significantly better on some of these, such as evolution.

... Is it unfair to single out Southern states for questions about interracial marriage? The Economist thinks not.

4 comments:

  1. JIm (in a cranky mood)Monday, March 12, 2012

    "22% believe in evolution, vs. 66% who don't"

    Perhaps because it hasn't happened to 66% of us yet.

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  2. It's a telephone poll, for what it's worth, and the last time this pollster came up (a prior poll about interracial marriage), they were heavily criticized in general....

    The interesting fact I saw in there that caused me to wonder: Tea Party folks don't like Santorum. Their numbers for Romney and Gingrich are about like other Republicans, but Santorum's support plummets among the Tea Partiers.

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  3. Perhaps the "he voted to raise the debt ceiling 5 times!" ads have done their work vs. Santorum.

    Take your point about telephone polls, but isn't that how most polls are done these days? If this poll is suspect, how is it more suspect than polls in general?

    ... That would be a pretty funny visual spot, Jim, with a Neandertal in overall and a CAT hat ....

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  4. Note the recent posting in FP Mag. about the demand destruction of the GOP brand. Mitt thinks he can relate to those rich white people just fine as for the poor white people down south as long as their only source of info. is Fox news he will do just fine.JL

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