Who would have thought driving into a conversation about either eliminating or drastically changing the third rail of American politics would cost the major Republican presidential contenders some support in the polls? A lot of people, apparently.
Public Policy Polling (D) released their latest national poll on Tuesday, and it seems that calling Social Security a “ponzi sceme” has not been particularly productive for Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Only 20 percent of voters nationally agree with that sentiment, against 70 percent who do not. Just to drive the point home, 82 percent don’t agree with ending the popular entitlement program, versus 12 who do. The results mirror a CNN poll on the issue, which showed that 72 percent thought Perry’s comments on Social Security were “not accurate.”
The issue seems to have galvanized some wayward Democrats who had previously remained uncommitted to President Obama. The PPP poll showed Obama above 50 percent in a matchup against Perry, besting him 52 - 41, outside the margin of error. Obama remains locked in a statistical tie with Romney however, with a lead in the poll of 49 - 45. But PPP Pollster Tom Jensen noted the shift in Democrats:
The president’s more solid standing in the Perry and Romney horseraces comes from consolidating his party support. He was losing 13% of Democrats to each candidate in August, but only 11% to Romney and 9% to Perry now. Obama has meanwhile upped his own crossover support, from 5% to 9% of Republicans versus Romney and 10% to 11% against Perry. The president leads Perry by ten points with independents, but Romney tops Obama by two with them.
The poll also noted that Perry’s views on global warming and evolution, calling both into question, are solidly at odds with Americans generally. The same number of Americans don’t believe in them, 37 percent each, against majorities of over 50 percent who do. Perry’s views have been playing rather well with conservatives in GOP primary states like South Carolina and Iowa, but of course how they would play with general election voters was always going to be another matter.
Perry’s favorability remains low in the PPP poll after his first month in the race, falling to 30 percent favorable against 50 who have an unfavorable view. Again, Gallup has shown that GOP voters are very likely to have a favorable view of Perry, and Romney for that matter, but as the GOP candidates duke it out, their positions are starting to sour their poll numbers in a direct matchup with the President. “In just three weeks Barack Obama has nearly doubled his lead over Rick Perry,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “That would seem to be an indication that Perry’s comments about Social Security are giving him trouble with swing voters.”
The PPP poll used 665 automated telephone interviews with registered voters conducted from September 8th to the 11th. The poll has a sampling error of 3.8 percent.
Kyle Leighton
Kyle is the Poll Editor at TPM. He graduated from Beloit College (WI) and began working in politics before getting an M.A. in magazine journalism from New York University, where he interned at TPM and the website of The New Yorker.
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