Every month, Rasmussen polls Americans on ten key issues and asks them which party they agree with more on that issue. The results from this month are results the McCain campaign should look at closely. While Republicans only led Democrats on two issues, I still thought these results were good news. Here are the ten issues from most favorable to Republicans to most favorable to Democrats.
A few things caught my attention.
1. The fact that Republicans are more trusted on national security is good news for McCain since he has made it a key issue. It would be nice if the margin were healthier than 5 points.
2. Taxes ought to be a +10 for the Republicans instead of just +4. Perhaps we haven’t gotten our message out.
3. While Democrats hold a modest 2 point edge on Iraq, it shows Iraq will not likely be the Achilles’ heal it was in 2006. McCain is taking the right approach criticizing the Rumsfeld strategy. While things are better on the ground, McCain must be more clear about what he means when he says he wants to achieve victory.
4. Groups like It’s My Party Too have said that the Republican party should de-emphasize socially conservative positions like the pro-life cause. The pro-life cause is unpopular among many wealthy Republicans who are our party’s heaviest contributors, but the evidence that it is grossly unpopular with the general public is lacking. Six of the ten issues were more favorable to Democrats than this one. The country is basically in a dead heat over this issue, with a few more pro-choicers than pro-lifers. McCain has no need to talk about this issue unless asked, but he does not need to shy away from it either.
5. Pat Buchanan will be very disappointed that the public actually trusts Democrats more on immigration. McCain is still in good shape on this one. He may not be as conservative as some of us would like on this issue, but he doesn’t support drivers’ licenses like Obama does.
6. Republicans largely won Congress in 1994 because of a rejection of socialized medicine. Unfortunately, the public MAY have gotten more liberal on that issue as they now trust Democrats by 16 points. McCain said yesterday, “Go to Canada and you’ll see what’s wrong with universal health care.” Perhaps McCain can get the public to come to its senses on this one.
7. The top four issues for Democrats are all bread and butter issues. I consider this largely a function of the slowing economy. I also think the public doesn’t really understand privatization of Social Security. Bush did not convey his message properly. I’ve talked to many people who were surprised when I said Bush’s plan was optional and only involved investing a small percentage of one’s payroll taxes into a conservative mix of stocks and bonds. Most voters, especially those disinclined toward Bush anyway, thought Republicans wanted to require everybody to invest all of their payroll taxes in the stock market instead of the current system. It is McCain’s job to come up with a plan on this issue. As to the economy, I think the Republicans’ numbers will improve in the coming months. McCain is already speaking to voters’ concerns on gasoline taxes and on capital gains as well. Barack Obama will not be able to say, “The economy was better when my husband was President.” like the nominee we thought we were going to have would have said.
April 21st, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Re: Social Security…
How about…don’t take peoples’ money away from them!
April 21st, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Nursat, the big problem with SS is that those people actually believe that the government is saving money for them. They cannot be further from the truth. The money taken out of our paychecks are used immediately to help the current beneficators. It has nothing to do with our future. We can only hope that there will still be enough idiots in the future, like us, who sincerely believe the government has their best interest in its heart. But even this hope is in vain, because, now that on average, it takes 3 workers to support a beneficator, whereas, when SS was first started, there were 15 workers for every beneficator. Within next decade, it will drop to 2.
April 21st, 2008 at 1:42 pm
“How about…don’t take peoples’ money away from them!”
No kidding I don’t get how the Dems have the advantage on this one.
April 21st, 2008 at 1:51 pm
I wonder if the gap on issues like the economy and healthcare would be closer if say Romney was the presumptive nominee
April 21st, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Is there a difference in policy between McCain and the Dems on National Security/War on Terror?
That’s not a serious question, right? I mean, this guy is just saying something like that to get me and the other Adam riled up?
April 21st, 2008 at 2:18 pm
McCain is far more eloquent on the life issue than Bush, and Bush is no slouch.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Adam #5,
Nah… He/she’s just some troll that crawled in here.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Joel, I always thought Laura held him back on that issue. He was asked three times during a debate with Kerry about that issue, and he gave one of the most dodgeball answers I heard from either him or Kerry during the campaign. At least Kerry came out and said where he stood. Bush would not answer the question no matter how it was asked. I saw McCain on This Week yesterday and found him to be more eloquent on EVERYTHING than Bush. It is good to have an eloquent spokesman for our side again after five elections of Bushes and Doles. McCain graduated in the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy whereas Bush at least held his own at Yale, but it goes to show grades do not always accurately measure intelligence.
April 21st, 2008 at 2:48 pm
AdamPSU, I think there would be a difference in policy between McCain and the Democrats on the war on terror. I do think the differences would be far more pronounced against Obama than Hillary, but they would be there with Hillary too.
April 21st, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Or we could have had the very intelligent, well spoken Romney as our nominee…..Just sayin
April 21st, 2008 at 3:20 pm
“6. Republicans largely won Congress in 1994 because of a rejection of socialized medicine. Unfortunately, the public MAY have gotten more liberal on that issue as they now trust Democrats by 16 points. McCain said yesterday, “Go to Canada and you’ll see what’s wrong with universal health care.†Perhaps McCain can get the public to come to its senses on this one.”
I work for an employee benefits consultant and from that perspective I can say the public may be more liberal on the issue because the cost for healthcare (insurance, out of pocket copays, etc.) is anywhere from 3 to 8 times what it cost 15 years ago. Given the economic slowdown and the relentless message about how important health insurance is for every single human being that has ever lived in history, then you have people thinking that we should do what Europe is trying to now move away from.
April 21st, 2008 at 3:50 pm
10-
And we would see a landslide for Obama. Just sayin. I liked Romney, but I’m about 45 days sick of hearing about how smart he is. As he branded himself in this cycle, he wasn’t electable in a general election.
Kudos to the Rombots though for sticking him into this discussion.
April 21st, 2008 at 4:50 pm
The vast majority of voters pay more in SS taxes, than in income taxes.
If we want to win on taxes we better propose a FICA tax cut. That would please employers (who pay 50% of FICA taxes) and it would directly benefit every worker.
When we cut income taxes we only directly effect ~50% of voters.
April 21st, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Why should voters trust the Republican Party any more than the Democratic Party on foreign policy, economics, social policy, etc? With relatively shallow differences, both the Republicans’ and the Democrats’ approach to these issues springs from the same exact base philosophy.
There’s really little reason for voters to trust Republicans any more than Democrats. Why should we be surprised that a lot of people will vote Democratic this November just because they have cooler candidates?
April 21st, 2008 at 6:53 pm
[...] Politics, Stop Hillary) Check out this good analysis by Clarence Claus at Race42008 on the top ten issues for American voters. Of course, the top issue was national security. 1. The fact that Republicans are more trusted on [...]
April 21st, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Eric, I disagree vehemently that the way Romney branded himself this election cycle makes him unelectable. Someone running on a center-right platform, as Romney was, is never unelectable because this remains a center-right country. I think the way Obama is running now, I almost wonder if Tom Tancredo could have been electable. Eric, if you want to be apologetic about your conservative beliefs and say, “I’d like to have a conservative, but they can’t win.” then be apologetic, but count me out.