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Rasmussen: 56% Disagree With Obama's "Bitter" Remarks

By Jeralyn

A new Rasmussen national poll finds 56% of Americans disagree with Obama's remarks calling small town Pennsylvanians bitter and clinging to G-d and their guns. Only 25% approve.

45% said Obama is out of touch with small-town Americans and his words show an elitist view of them. (Questions asked and results are here.)

But it may make more difference in the general election than the primary. Democrats are less offended by the remarks, and liberal democrats, even less so:

Democrats are fairly evenly divided—34% agree with Obama and 43% disagree. Generally, Obama supporters agree with him while Hillary Clinton’s supporters disagree.

A plurality of politically liberal voters—46%--agree with Obama’s statement while 33% disagree. Moderate voters take the opposite view and disagree by a 51% to 27% margin. Seventy-four percent (74%) of conservatives disagree with Obama’s statement, only 12% agree.

Republicans and Independents on the other hand: [More...]

Republicans overwhelmingly disagree with the statement and unaffiliated voters disagree by a two-to-one margin.

By demographic:

Voters under 30 are evenly divided on Obama’s statement while their elders strongly disagree. Fifty-three percent (53%) of African-Americans agree with Obama’s statement while 29% disagree. White voters disagree by a 3-to-1 margin.

Forty-five percent (45%) say that Obama’s comments reflect an elitist view of small town voters. Thirty-seven percent (37%) disagree. Republicans overwhelmingly say that the statements are elitist and most Democrats disagree. Among unaffiliated voters, 40% say they represent an elitist view while 34% disagree.

Rasmussen says Obama's "bait and switch" was a shrewd move:

The survey also confirmed that the Obama campaign and its surrogates were very shrewd to try and switch the conversation to whether or not people are bitter and want change in Washington. Fifty-six percent (56%) of voters agreed with Obama’s statement that “People are fed up. They're angry and they're frustrated and they're bitter, and they want to see a change in Washington.”

We'll see how well that response plays for PA voters soon. I think they'll remember he said they cling to G-d, guns and anti-immigrant sentiment out of bitterness.

Just to be clear, his words were that small town voters

“cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Full post as published by TalkLeft on April 14, 2008 (boomark / email).