Public's View of Economy Takes Fast Turn Downward

[onehandle]

Source: Washington Post

The public's ratings of the national economy continue to sour, with assessments deteriorating faster than at any point in Washington Post-ABC News polling. Views on the Iraq war have also turned more negative, with six in 10 now rejecting the notion that the United States needs to win there to effectively battle terrorism.

The economy and the Iraq war are the top two issues on voters' minds, according to the new Post-ABC poll, and worsening opinions of both may dampen GOP hopes for the November elections.

Nine in 10 Americans now give the economy a negative rating, with a majority saying it is in "poor" shape, the most to say so in more than 15 years. And the sense that things are bad has spread swiftly. The percentage who hold a negative view of the economy is up 33 points over the past year, and the percentage who rate the economy "poor" has increased 13 points in the past two months. That is the quickest 60-day decline since The Post and ABC started asking the question, in 1985.

Views of the Iraq war have dipped as well. Now, more than six in 10 say that the conflict is not integral to the success of U.S. anti-terrorism efforts. That is the most people to reject what is one of the Bush administration's central contentions and a core part of presumed GOP presidential nominee John McCain's stand on the issue.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/17/AR2008041703769.html

[Red Zelda]

1. Just wear a flag pin and shut up

[Kindigger]

2. It is hard

to keep your mouth shut, and ask for cheese.:silly:

[TalkingDog]

22. Ummmm...Gubbment Cheez.....

See, it's not all bad. A whole new generation, Hell - TWO new generations, will now know the luscious savory taste of Gubbment Cheez.

Seriously, it's a delicacy......


And the butter is really good too.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

3. "...core part of presumed GOP presidential nominee John McCain's stand on the issue..."

And yet, despite this fact and the fact that McCain has no real concept for what is going on in the economy, we were treated to headlines yesterday claiming that McCain is picking up "undecided" voters because they've grown weary of the Hillary-Obama bickering.

I think we're well past the point of needing ONE candidate, ONE person who can stand up to McCain, ONE person who can begin to repair the damage from two terms of Bush-Cheney.

But no, that's OK...let's post some more "bitter" threads. It'll all work out. Yeah, it's got to. Right?

[natrat]

4. jeez wait til it falls off the cliff,,,,picking up steam now

[natrat]

5. so if it dampens republican hopes why does mcain poll even with obama

americans by and large are the stupidest on earth

[boilinmad]

6. So, remind me again....

.....how McSame has the slightest chance in hell of winning the presidency?????????

[skoalyman]

7. according to the cheerleaders on cnBc

:bounce: the economy's looking peachy today :bounce: :nopity:of course they say that everyday.

[alstephenson]

8. Another stolen election.

They're setting us up.

[Stuart G]

9. Public's View of Economy Takes Fast Turn Downward.., 90 percent Give Economy Poor Rating

Source: Huffington Post, Washington Post.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/17/AR2008041703769_pf.html

Public's View of Economy Takes Fast Turn Downward
By Jennifer Agiesta and Jon Cohen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, April 18, 2008; A07
The public's ratings of the national economy continue to sour, with assessments deteriorating faster than at any point in Washington Post-ABC News polling. Views on the Iraq war have also turned more negative, with six in 10 now rejecting the notion that the United States needs to win there to effectively battle terrorism.
The economy and the Iraq war are the top two issues on voters' minds, according to the new Post-ABC poll, and worsening opinions of both may dampen GOP hopes for the November elections.
Nine in 10 Americans now give the economy a negative rating, with a majority saying it is in "poor" shape, the most to say so in more than 15 years. And the sense that things are bad has spread swiftly. The percentage who hold a negative view of the economy is up 33 points over the past year, and the percentage who rate the economy "poor" has increased 13 points in the past two months. That is the quickest 60-day decline since The Post and ABC started asking the question, in 1985.
Views of the Iraq war have dipped as well. Now, more than six in 10 say that the conflict is not integral to the success of U.S. anti-terrorism efforts. That is the most people to reject what is one of the Bush administration's central contentions and a core part of presumed GOP presidential nominee John McCain's stand on the issue.
And for the first time since President Bush ordered additional troops to Iraq early last year, the number of Americans saying the United States is not making significant progress toward restoring civil order there has risen. Negative views of the war had eased steadily from late 2006 through early March of this year, but 57 percent in the new poll said efforts in Iraq have stalled, up six points.
Moreover, while Bush remains committed to keeping more than 100,000 U.S. troops in Iraq through the rest of his presidency, 56 percent of Americans say the United States should withdraw its military forces to avoid further casualties. This has been the majority view since January 2007.
On several measures, the poll finds Republicans inching away from support for the war. Among them, a sense that progress in Iraq has stalled has increased 13 points from early March, and the percentages who prefer withdrawing troops over risking more casualties (30 percent) and who think that the battle against terrorism can be a success without victory in Iraq (39 percent) are each at new highs.
The percentages of Democrats and independents advocating withdrawal and seeing Iraq as distinct from the U.S. terrorism fight are also at or near high marks. And three-quarters of Democrats and nearly six in 10 independents do not see significant progress in Iraq.
The survey was conducted April 10 through 13, after congressional testimony about the war by Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker.
Partisan views color public opinion about the nation's economy, as well as those about Iraq.
Two-thirds of Democrats call the economy downright "poor," as do a majority of independents. But while a wide majority of Republicans rate the economy negatively, only about three in 10 describe conditions as that dire, and most have a positive take on the future. Most Democrats and independents, however, hold pessimistic views about the next 12 months.
Economic ratings are flagging across partisan lines, and overall optimism is at a new low among all Americans: Nearly six in 10 said they feel pessimistic about the economy for the coming year, a seven-point increase since early February. And those who think the situation is already in poor shape do not have high hopes for recovery anytime soon; nearly three-quarters of them have a negative view about the next 12 months.
Focusing on their own finances, Americans are generally upbeat, but here, too, opinions have declined somewhat

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/17/AR2008041703769_pf.html

---

90 percent say the economy is bad. Fastest Downturn in history of the Poll..........
...Now, everyone sees the truth...and it is about time.

[SpiralHawk]

10. People know this as the Republicon Recession

Because that's exactly what it is.

[Stuart G]

14. And it has just started the last few months...but..

for some, it has been a very long time. And the Federal Government has not done anything to help..If fact, with tax laws favoring companies, Federal Government has favored the creation of a very bad recession..

[kerrybama08]

11. 90%. Wow, that's a lot

Is there any doubt that we never had a president this incompetent?

[meegbear]

12. He's got a 28% approval rating ...

so he lost more than half of that with this poll.

[sinkingfeeling]

13. And 81% think we're on the 'wrong path'. So how the hell can polls show McSame leading both

Clinton or Obama?

[Stuart G]

15. In a thread below this one, Citigroup is laying off 9000...why?

because of loss in the housing meltdown, why? because Bush allowed these unsupervised, awful loans to go out. So the recession brought to you by Mr. Bush.

here is a direct link, and you can see that thread. That thread one is posted by...AlphaCentauri...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3273604

[predfan]

16. Much of this can be attributed to fuel prices, IMO, and guess what?

They're not going to change much anytime soon, if ever. We cannot conserve enough to counter the growing demand world wide, and, on top of everything else, we've got a weak dollar that hits Americans even worse than many countries. Once again Bush creates a royal mess and slithers away, leaving someone else to clean up. This time it'll take a generation.

[bdamomma]

17. polls, polls and more polls

but do we see action being taken a big NO. Is pitchforks and torches time yet?????

[bdamomma]

18. I wish they came out with a poll asking if this president

has psychological problems that would be interesting to see.

[Stuart G]

19. Excellent point alice...but they ..

don't do polls like that. Just like they should do a poll asking if a person thinks if this President has told more lies than any other President. That poll isn't done either. Or any aspect of this President's lies...
..We won't hear about ."lies".. ..for there are certain words the mainstream media doesn't use. Like the "F" word, or the "S" word but we also have the "L" word. that.. is Lie ..Bush, according to the mainstream media doesn't lie, he just has been mislead by his advisers or didn't have enough information.

..Almost no one in the Newspapers, or TV every accused him of lieing...(Olbermann and a few progressives excepted)..No polls will be taken on his lies, How sad.........How sad indeed...

[swag]

20. John McCain is one of the ten percenters. What a clueless dolt.

[DemReadingDU]

21. evening kick