A recent Virginia poll conducted by Old Dominion University
(ODU) and The Virginian-Pilot came up
with some surprising results: President Obama is preferred over the Republican
presidential candidate Mitt Romney by Virginia’s voters.[1]
Of the 776 voting-age Virginians who were interviewed over
the phone between May 16 and June 15, 49 percent said they would vote for
President Obama on Nov. 6 as opposed to 42 percent who chose Romney.
The 7-percentage point advantage held by Obama is noteworthy,
according to ODU political scientist Jesse Richman.[2]
Among other things, the 7-percentage point advantage falls well outside of the
3.5 percentage point margin of error.
Of course, it’s late June and the presidential election is
months off. Those numbers certainly can, and probably will, change.
But another important finding points to where President
Obama will most likely be orienting his economic policies in the months leading
up to the 2012 presidential election. In a word, conservative.
6 in 10 of those interviewed stated that the nation’s
economic policies need to turn a more conservative direction. Even though
social issues were also raised during the interviews, it’s a platitude by now
that “It’s the economy, stupid!”[3]
That is, if President Obama cannot win a sizable majority of the American
public’s trust on economic policy, he probably won’t win his bid for
re-election.
For all of the cries of “socialism” aimed at President
Obama, however, there doesn’t appear to be a fundamental difference between
President Obama’s and his predecessor’s economic policies.[4]
President Obama has extended the Bush-era tax cuts and both have undertaken
deficit spending to spur the economy.[5]
And like President George W. Bush, President Obama clearly sees deficit spending
as a SHORT TERM solution to the U.S.’s financial woes.
Ironically, though, what might become center stage during
the presidential contest is who’s interests President Obama and Romney serve. Is
it one class of American’s or all classes? In the case of Romney, it’s not too
difficult to determine[6].
No comments:
Post a Comment