TPM
President Obama's State Of The Union address last night helped Obama reconnect with the angry Independent voters he's lost during his first year in office. That's one takeaway from a pair of instant polls published by major TV outlets last night. Though the quick overnight polls are rarely given the credibility of other opinion polling, the large jumps in positive impressions of Obama's leadership from respondents last at least point to a potential turnaround for the White House when it comes to communication.
Polls from CBS and CNN overnight showed Democrats were more likely to watch the speech than either Independents or Republicans. That's not rare, according to pollsters -- supporters of the president in power usually tune in the speech more than opponents. But in both polls, Independents represented more than a third of viewership -- a number in keeping with the electorate as a whole, according to CBS. The high marks viewers gave the speech suggest Obama connected with some of the Independents, a critical constituency Democrats have lost in the most recent elections.
On the economy, which the White House said before hand was the central focus of the speech, viewers polled afterward were on board with Obama's policy proposals. In the CBS poll, 71% of respondents said Obama's economic plans will help ordinary Americans, up 16% percent from before the address. The CNN poll had similar results.
The policy plans in the speech also connected with viewers. The CBS poll found 70% of speech viewers said Obama shares their priorities. That's up from 57% in pre-speech polling. In the CNN poll, more than half of respondents said Obama "has the right priorites," while 44% said he "hasn't paid attention to the most important problems." Those numbers were flipped in pre-speech polling.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/digging-in-the-insta-polls-obama-sotu-connected-with-viewers.php
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