Americans have little confidence in how President Barack Obama is handling terrorism, and have little faith that the wide slate of candidates hoping to replace him will do much better, an
Economist/YouGov poll shows.
The random sample of 2,000 people showed that 18 percent of Americans say they are most concerned about terrorism, compared to 15 percent who find that the economy is most concerning, marking the first time they are more worried about terrorism than the economy, reports
Roll Call.
Further, the poll showed, 33 percent of Americans believe the United States is much less safe from attacks from terrorists than it was a year ago, and 25 percent believe the country is somewhat less safe.
Overall, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton scored the highest marks, with 40 percent saying they feel confident about her ability to deal wisely with terrorism, even though 46 percent said they would feel uneasy with how she would handle terrorism.
Coming in behind Clinton were GOP Sens. Ted Cruz, at 41 percent and Marco Rubio, with 40 percent.
"That says something about the overall concern," said YouGov consultant Kathy Frankovic. "None have been able to seize the issue and make their position supported by the majority of the public."
In comparison, just 34 percent said have confidence in how Obama dealt with terrorism.
The percentage of people who are most concerned with terrorism jumped for the first time since the poll started asking that question in 2009, and Frankovic said that was because of the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino.
The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 points.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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