Eideard

Nearly 11 years after the 2000 presidential election brought the corruption idiosyncrasies of the United States’ Electoral College into full view, 62% of Americans say they would amend the U.S. Constitution to replace that system for electing presidents with a popular vote system. Barely a third, 35%, say they would keep the Electoral College.

Gallup’s initial measure of support for the Electoral College with this wording was conducted in the first few days after the 2000 presidential election in which the winner remained undeclared pending a recount in Florida. At that time, it was already clear that Democratic candidate Al Gore had won the national popular vote over Republican George W. Bush, but that the winner of the election would be the one who received Florida’s 25 Electoral College votes…

Republicans have grown somewhat more amenable to adopting a popular vote system over the past decade. Now, for the first time since 2000, the majority of Republicans favor it. Independents are not quite as supportive as Democrats of the popular vote system, but the majority of them have consistently favored it.

Additionally, Gallup finds little difference in the views of Americans of various age groups on changing how the country elects presidents. Support for amending the Constitution on this matter is 58% among 18- to 34-year-olds, 64% among 35-to 54-year-olds, and 62% among those 55 and older.

From 1967 through 1980, Gallup periodically asked Americans about replacing the Electoral College with a popular vote system using different question wording, and each time, the majority favored it. The issue was particularly relevant during this period because the popular vote in the 1968 and 1976 presidential elections was so closely divided…

Next question? What do you think Congress will do about responding to the will of the people?

I thought so, too. They are truly useless.

“Suppose you were an idiot.
And suppose you were a member of Congress.
But I repeat myself.”

Americans’ evaluation of the job Congress is doing is the worst Gallup has ever measured, with 13% approving, tying the all-time low measured in December 2010. Disapproval of Congress is at 84%, a percentage point higher than last December’s previous high rating.

These results are based on an Aug. 11-14 Gallup poll, which includes the first update on Congress’ job approval rating since the government reached agreement on a deal to raise the debt ceiling after contentious and protracted negotiations between President Obama and congressional leaders. Standard & Poor’s subsequently downgraded the United States’ credit rating, in part citing the current political environment in Washington. That sparked a week of intense volatility in the stock market, with days of sharp losses and large gains.

Frustration with Congress was evident immediately after the debt ceiling agreement, with a record-low 21% of registered voters in an Aug. 4-7 USA Today/Gallup poll saying most members of Congress deserve re-election.

President Obama’s job approval rating has also declined in recent days, reaching a low of 39% in Aug. 11-13 Gallup Daily tracking…

Gallup has measured Americans’ approval rating of Congress since 1974…

Independents are currently the most critical of Congress, with 9% approving and 86% disapproving. Republicans and Democrats give Congress slightly higher, but still overwhelmingly negative, marks.

Frankly, I think we’re too kind at evaluating this lot. Sam Clemens got it right when he said there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress. Corruption, payoffs, credits and favors via all the methods made especially popular since the days of Newt Gingrich’s contract on America characterize the day-to-day operations of one of the least functional legislatures in the history of democracy.

Utah is the most Republican state in the U.S. this year, and Washington, D.C., and Hawaii rank as the most Democratic areas, according to a Gallup survey…

Among respondents to the poll, self-identified Democrats hold a 68-percentage-point advantage over Republicans in D.C. and a 24-point edge in Hawaii for the first half of 2011. Maryland, which ranked second after D.C. in a 2010 poll, now comes in just behind Hawaii with a 22-point Democratic advantage.

Gallup classifies states as more Democratic or more Republican based on the difference between the percentage of residents who tell pollsters they identify or lean Democrat and those who identify or lean Republican.

In Utah, Republicans hold a 32-point advantage over Democrats to make it the most Republican state in the country. Idaho ranks second with a 29-point gap. Wyoming, which held a 1-percentage-point edge over Utah in 2010, ranks third this year with a 27-point Republican advantage…

There’s little change elsewhere, according to Gallup’s polling. From 2010 to 2011, just one state fell from the Democrat top 10: California. Illinois, which was not in the top ten in 2010, now ranks as the ninth most Democratic in 2011.

On the GOP side, eight of the top 10 remain from 2010 to 2011. New Hampshire and South Dakota dropped down, and North Dakota and South Carolina rose to the top 10 Republican states…

On the national level, Democrats hold a slim lead over Republicans, with 44 percent of Americans surveyed saying they identify or lean Democratic compared with 40 percent who prefer the GOP. “The first half of 2011 looked a lot like 2010 politically in the United States, with Democrats enjoying a slight advantage in party affiliation nationally,” the report stated…

The Gallup results are based on a random sample of 177,600 adults in all 50 states and the District of Columbia from Jan. 2-June 30, 2011. Margins of error for most states are plus or minus 3 percentage points or less.

Gallup is too candyass to work at defining the characteristics of independent voters. I presume there continues to be a growing portion of that quality who are Left or Right of the two old parties – who are too fed up with internal bureaucracy to want to deal with membership in either.

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

Nearly half of Americans believe the health care reform bill signed by President Barack Obama on Tuesday was a “good thing,” according to a new Gallup poll.

Forty-nine percent of the 1,005 adults polled nationwide Monday said health reform was a “good thing,” compared with 40 percent who said it was bad…

“Passage of health care reform was a clear political victory for President Obama and his allies in Congress,” Gallup’s Lydia Saad wrote in her analysis of the survey, released Tuesday. “While it also pleases most of his Democratic base nationwide, it is met with greater ambivalence among independents and with considerable antipathy among Republicans.”

I’m a second generation poll/survey student. I don’t know anyone in the business who doesn’t consider Gallup’s history as anything other than conservative – for decades.

I’m not certain that I’d include Obama’s allies in Congress as getting much of the credit.

Congressional Democrats were damned with faint praise, with 32 percent of respondents saying they did well in addressing healthcare. Twenty percent judged Democrats’ efforts only fair and 33 percent said they did poorly, results indicated.

Republicans earned high marks from 26 percent of respondents; 34 percent said the congressional GOP did fair and 34 percent said the minority party did a poor job on healthcare.

Reads to me like the Democrats suck! And the Republicans suck more!