President Barack Obama looms large in next month's elections, with almost a third of Americans considering their vote for Congress as one against the president, a new poll shows.
The
Pew Research Center survey finds 32 percent of registered voters see their midterm ballot as a vote against Obama compared with 20 percent who view it as a vote of support. Forty-five percent don't consider the president a factor at all in their voting.
The backlash is slightly sharper than in mid-October 2010, when 30 percent of registered voters thought of their vote as “against” Obama, while 27 percent viewed it as vote in favor of the freshman commander-in-chief.
With less than two weeks before the midterms, the Republican Party holds significant leads on several major issues, the poll found.
Voters say the GOP could do a better job than the Democrats on the economy, and the Republicans hold double-digit advantages on both terrorism and the budget deficit.
Democrats have the upper hand over Republicans on healthcare.
But Obama's negative factor may mean big trouble for Democrats hoping to keep a narrow Senate majority, the
Washington Examiner points out.
Democrats may worry about another finding in the survey: 68 percent of voters who support a Republican candidate have given a lot of thought to the election, compared with 54 percent of their Democrat counterparts.
The poll found voters of both parties are in an anti-incumbent mood; 68 percent say don't want current lawmakers re-elected.
The survey taken between Oct. 15-20 has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 points.
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