Surprise! South isn’t like the rest of the country
Last week, Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly put together an interesting chart using results of a weekly nationwide Research 2000 poll. He took the question “Do you have a favorable view of the Republican Party?” and charted the results by region.
As the Cookie Monster might note, one of these regions is very much not like the other.
While public attitudes toward the GOP are largely positive here in the South, they are very much negative in the rest of the country. Just 7 percent of voters polled in the Northeast think favorably toward the Republican Party, and numbers in the Midwest (13 percent) and West (14 percent) aren’t much better.
Not surprisingly, charting favorability toward the Democrats would produce a mirror image of Benen’s chart. While just 41 percent of voters think favorably of Democrats, and 50 percent perceive it unfavorably, those national numbers vary widely by region. In the Northeast, 62 percent view the Democrats favorably, while just 20 percent do so in the South.
The poll was done for the liberal DailyKos site, which will no doubt taint it in the eyes of some. But the national numbers it produces track closely with other polls, suggesting that it is not an outlier. Nationally, Research 2000 put Barack Obama’s favorability rating at 54 percent, while the average of major polls at Pollster.com puts it at 53.6 percent. (Here in the South, Research 2000 put Obama’s favorability number at just 27 percent, with 67 percent viewing him unfavorably.)
The standard question of whether the country is headed in the right direction or is on the wrong track also suggests the Research 2000 findings are in the mainstream. Its results put the numbers at 40 percent right direction, 54 percent wrong track, while the poll average at Pollster puts it at 38.6 percent right direction, 54 percent wrong track. In other words, the poll “trues up” pretty well.
And yes, we here in the South are considerably more pessimistic about the country’s direction than our fellow Americans. Just 30 percent say we’re headed in the right direction, while 63 percent say we’re on the wrong track.
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450 comments Add your comment
I Report/ Vast White Wing Conspirator (-: You Whine )-:
September 22nd, 2009
8:39 am
Train running late this morning, bookman?
And you are right, Daily Kooks polls are for the, um, kooks.
We live in the real world.
Taxpayer
September 22nd, 2009
8:44 am
I must say that graphic tell the whole story even without any numbers. The Republicans have been fingered out.
USinUK
September 22nd, 2009
8:44 am
you know, if GA actually got it’s head out of it’s collective keister and had Sunday alcohol sales, the view of where the country was heading would turn right around …
godless heathen
September 22nd, 2009
8:46 am
And Obama got 52% of the vote nationally. Says something about his appeal doesn’t it?
USinUK
September 22nd, 2009
8:47 am
“And Obama got 52% of the vote nationally. Says something about his appeal doesn’t it?”
yep. says folks like him more than they liked W
TnGelding
September 22nd, 2009
8:49 am
Secede!
We’re a fickle lot. We thought the country was headed in the wrong direction under Bush, too, by much larger numbers, tho. Obo will get us turned around.
New motto: AUSTERITY!
How anyone could view the GOP favorably is beyond me. And ditto for the Democrats.
Doggone/GA
September 22nd, 2009
8:50 am
What’s interesting to me is how close the yes and no are in the South as compared to the other areas.
TnGelding
September 22nd, 2009
8:51 am
USinUK
September 22nd, 2009
8:47 am
Or was it fewer folks disliked him?
stands for decibels
September 22nd, 2009
8:53 am
huh huh…
Jay said “taint.”
Mrs. Godzilla
September 22nd, 2009
8:54 am
Jay! You’re pullin’ our legs!
We know you weren’t really surprised! Anybody who has traveled out
of Dixie knows there is a great big beautiful world out there that the South is only a small dusty corner of.
Taxpayer…..quite a perceptive observation.
TnGelding
September 22nd, 2009
8:55 am
Doggone/GA
September 22nd, 2009
8:50 am
Interesting? What about embarrassing? The unsure vote is larger, as well.
USinUK
September 22nd, 2009
8:55 am
TnG
8:51
that, too.
Peadawg
September 22nd, 2009
8:55 am
Godzilla, if you hate the south so much…leave!
Doggone/GA
September 22nd, 2009
8:59 am
“What about embarrassing?”
Why is it embarrasing?
Mrs. Godzilla
September 22nd, 2009
9:02 am
Peadawg
Please show me where I said I hate the south.
If you can’t (and you can’t) go play in a swamped septic system you twit.
godless heathen
September 22nd, 2009
9:02 am
With such a disparity, you would think that Obama would have garnered more than 52% of the vote. This suggests that the Research 2000 poll is a bunch of crap.
stands for decibels
September 22nd, 2009
9:02 am
And Obama got 52% of the vote nationally.
I know I’m nitpicking but… you always know you’re dealing with a real special kind of entrenched denial when someone chooses to round 52.92 DOWN, to 52.
Peadawg
September 22nd, 2009
9:03 am
“South is only a small dusty corner of.”
I took that as you don’t like the South very much….I put words in your mouth like y’all do to me all the frigin time
Peadawg
September 22nd, 2009
9:04 am
And we’ve already started the name calling…that didn’t take long.
TnGelding
September 22nd, 2009
9:05 am
Doggone/GA
September 22nd, 2009
8:59 am
That so many of us are that intractable after 8 years of total incompetence and miserable failure.
Mrs. Godzilla
September 22nd, 2009
9:05 am
Peadawg
You took it as?? You took it as?
Find the sawmp dude, and dive.
Also show me where I ever put words in your mouth (a gaping hole no human would approach to be sure) and I’ll give you a floaty for the swamp.
Twit.
godless heathen
September 22nd, 2009
9:06 am
Sorry, dB, I guess I misremembered. 52 or 53? BFD, point stands. Your wildly popular President got 2.92% of the vote more than the old guy who picked the dumb broad to run with him.
Mrs. Godzilla
September 22nd, 2009
9:06 am
Peadawg
Starting name calling?
How about false accusations?
Take some personal responsibility.
USinUK
September 22nd, 2009
9:07 am
“With such a disparity, you would think that Obama would have garnered more than 52% of the vote. This suggests that the Research 2000 poll is a bunch of crap.”
you’re confusing opinions about a party with opinions about a person. just because people have a more positive opinion of Democrats in general doesn’t mean they’ll automatically vote for Obama for president.
nice try, though.
Doggone/GA
September 22nd, 2009
9:07 am
“That so many of us are that intractable after 8 years of total incompetence and miserable failure”
Sorry, I see it much more positively. To me, it reads like the GOP is very close to losing the South…just as they have lost the rest of the country.
Mrs. Godzilla
September 22nd, 2009
9:07 am
Peadawg
Now try the topic at hand, if you can.
TnGelding
September 22nd, 2009
9:07 am
Mrs. Godzilla
September 22nd, 2009
8:54 am
Well, I’ve got to admit, I was thinking maybe you should be looking for greener pastures myself. But I know you really love it here. It’s just some of the inhabitants that annoy you.
Peadawg
September 22nd, 2009
9:08 am
Dang someone’s panties are in a wad early this morning! LOL! This could be a fun day seeing your responses to my comments.
Bob from Dahlonega
September 22nd, 2009
9:10 am
I have a triple wide for sale up here. its in a nice Christian conservative trailer park no immigrants or liberals allowed.
anyone interested let me know. I have a four wheeler and some old confederate flags for sale also.
Road Scholar
September 22nd, 2009
9:10 am
I thought that the red in the graph was also the relative SAT scores in this country by region!
Peadawg; Why should Mrs G leave….I thought that ya’ll were going to secede and move to Texas?
Taxpayer
September 22nd, 2009
9:11 am
I imagine there are more people here in the south who are not liking the south too much right about now. Of course, those that bought flood insurance and need it now can be rejoicing because, unlike other insurance, flood insurance is backed by the fed. So, when you need it, it will be there for you. They won’t dump you.
Peadawg
September 22nd, 2009
9:11 am
Ok topic at hand…..
IMO this pole indicates that the rest of country has gone to hell in a hand basket a loooong time ago. If we keep believing gibberish from the Democrats, the South may be gone soon….sadly.
Lord help this country please!!!
Mrs. Godzilla
September 22nd, 2009
9:11 am
Peadawg
We can all see that yours are…..it reminds me of the joke about the two old guys on the beach and the potato…..
Joan
September 22nd, 2009
9:11 am
Republicans suffer from baggage, and lack of leadership. I am a conservative. I am not an anti-abortionist or a social demagogue. There are many of us who just want to try to keep some of our own hard earned dollars in our pocket to provide for our own old age. If people want to act like fools on game shows, or have same sex relations, well, so long as I am not paying for it, I don’t care. Where is the party for the conservative? And where is the rational spokeman? Mitt Romney was my pick, but the religious right killed his chances, and look what they got instead.
Normal
September 22nd, 2009
9:11 am
Y’all remember this?
And I went up there, I said, ‘Shrink, I want to kill. I mean, I wanna, I wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, Kill, KILL, KILL.’ And I started jumpin up and down yelling, ‘KILL, KILL,’ and he started jumpin up and down with me and we was both jumping up and down yelling, ‘KILL, KILL.’ And the sargent came over, pinned a medal on me, sent me down the hall, said, ‘You’re our boy.’
——————-
Don’t know why it is, but everytime I think of politicians of any stripe
I start humming “Alice’s Restaurant”…Am I sick, doctor?
TnGelding
September 22nd, 2009
9:12 am
godless heathen
September 22nd, 2009
9:02 am
Democrats aren’t held in much higher esteem. That and some could never vote for an inexperienced, foreign-born Muslim.
Peadawg
September 22nd, 2009
9:12 am
“Peadawg; Why should Mrs G leave….I thought that ya’ll were going to secede and move to Texas?”
I never said or agreed with that. That’s actually a pretty retarded idea. Thanks for putting words in my mouth…try again.
Mrs. Godzilla
September 22nd, 2009
9:12 am
Taxpayer
Isn’t flood insurance MANDATED in some areas?
Joey
September 22nd, 2009
9:13 am
Abandon hope all yee who give credence to a Daily Kos poll.
Or:
Surprise! Daily Kos is not like the rest of the country.
Peadawg
September 22nd, 2009
9:13 am
“and lack of leadership”
Kind of like the community organizer we have in office that is in waaaaaay over his head.
Mrs. Godzilla
September 22nd, 2009
9:14 am
Link to the potato joke:
http://jokes.aspcode.net/15810/Two-guys-who-wanted-to-pick-up-women.aspx
Peadawg
September 22nd, 2009
9:15 am
“Isn’t flood insurance MANDATED in some areas?”
I think I remember my loan officer talking about this back in May when we bought our house…I think it is depending on what kind of loan you get.
Mrs. Godzilla
September 22nd, 2009
9:15 am
What part of the two polls say the same thing did some folks miss?
Mrs. Godzilla
September 22nd, 2009
9:16 am
Peadawg
I think its related to location. Flood plain lines and such.
Couldn’t get a mortgage in certain areas of Jackson MS without it.
Peadawg
September 22nd, 2009
9:16 am
HAHAHAHA nice joke Godzilla. Hilarious!
Road Scholar
September 22nd, 2009
9:16 am
IR/YW: At least Jay shows up! Where has Kyle been? Also Kyle seems to be stuck in proposing “softballs” versus Jay’s multiple posts each day.
TnGelding
September 22nd, 2009
9:17 am
Doggone/GA
September 22nd, 2009
9:07 am
Save your Dubya dollars boys, the South will rise again! Not as long as NASCAR and football are more important than academics.
Jimmy62
September 22nd, 2009
9:17 am
What do you bet most of the margin was in California and New York? Coincidentally our two most bankrupt states. Obviously the people living there really know what they are doing. Not that the south is much better.
Joey
September 22nd, 2009
9:17 am
Jay;
Thanks for the laugh. I was a little down from dealing with water seeping into the basement of my home and into the lower level of our office.
This gem of yours gave me the laugh that I needed.
Peadawg
September 22nd, 2009
9:17 am
Ya that makes sense…not much of a change for a flood out here in Athens.