[Parallax]

Washington (CNN) -- Nearly two years into the recession, opinion about which political party is responsible for the severe economic downturn is shifting, according to a new national poll.

A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Friday morning indicates that 38 percent of the public blames Republicans for the country's current economic problems. In May, 53 percent blamed the GOP.

According to the poll, 27 percent now blame the Democrats for the recession, up 6 points from May, and 27 percent now say both parties are responsible.

"The bad news for the Democrats is that the number of Americans who hold the GOP exclusively responsible for the recession has been steadily falling by about two to three points per month," said Keating Holland, CNN polling director. "At that rate, only a handful of voters will blame the economy on the Republicans by the time next year's midterm elections roll around.."

Thirty-six percent of people questioned said that President Obama's policies have improved economic conditions, with 28 percent feeling that the president's programs have made things worse, and 35 percent saying what he's done has had no effect on the economy.

One reason for that, Holland said, may be the growing federal budget deficit: Two-thirds say that the government should balance the budget even in a time of war and recession.

The survey indicates that only 18 percent said the economic conditions in the country today are good, down 3 points from August. Eighty-two percent said economic conditions are poor.

"Some economic indicators may suggest that the economy has turned the corner -- but try telling that to the American people," Holland said.

The number of Americans who said the economy is in good shape -- a number that grew steadily through the spring and summer -- has now stalled, with fewer than one in five expressing a positive view of current conditions. More than eight in 10 say that economic conditions are in poor shape, with 43 percent calling them very poor.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll was conducted November 13-15, with 1,014 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

[flippedgazelle]

The 38% who blame the Reps and the 27% who blame the Dems are deluding themselves. The 27% are correct. Disturbing that that percentage is so small.

[shooz]

Does this mean the viral agents will shut up now?

Sure would be nice if they would.....

[Peter Zack]

These polls are totally ridiculous. The recession wasn't caused by either. It was greedy bankers and no regulation by both parties. How short the memories are. Seems giving mortgages to unemployed people and then selling them as "secure" might just have a little to do with it. Plus we're not done yet. there are lots of resets coming.

These types of polls are completely bias and would still follow party lines even if overwhelming evidence showed the cause of the recession was because it was discovered that the sky was blue.

[Wheatfield]

It's interesting that people just blame those who are in office now for the problems of their predecessors. Short sighted and uneducated people should not be asked to partake in polls. Whether Obama's policies are correct or wrong, no one would be able to fix GWB's screw ups in this short a time frame.

[Parallax]

These polls are totally ridiculous.

They always are when they go against the Libs, aren't they?

[Rupert]

I wouldn't get too excited. You still have to give the Dems a choice....and they would rather die than vote Republican, so what good is this poll? If the poll was 75/25 for Dems, would it make you vote for Obama? You are the ones needing to smell the coffee, or maybe some smelling salts to stimulate your apparently poor receptors.
Regards!

[shooz]

They always are when they go against the Libs, aren't they?

The problem with the Cons is they haven't got the word yet.

So I'll post a quote.

"We live in a police state"

-Merle Haggard_

[Parallax]

I wouldn't get too excited. You still have to give the Dems a choice....and they would rather die than vote Republican,

Rupert,
that one short statement sums up the problem better any number of pages I could have written. How Dems vote has nothing to do with issues, qualifications, or anything relevent. Emotion rules!

[Ratmagiclady]

They always are when they go against the Libs, aren't they?

Frankly, it just goes to how the remaining 29 percent of Americans who even call themselves Republicans at this point are just that out of touch. Could it be the same people who actually claim to *believe* the Republicans at this point? Since that seems to be the Republican's tactics, blame Democrats for what they were so proudly claiming no one could stop them from doing... and claim it's 'communism' to turn around and not do it more, while trying to blame a few Democrats for their entire platform.

Those figures actually are actually pretty close to how people break down by party, last I saw.

Not that Democrats were tremendously effective during the 'imperial presidency' and Republicans swinging their majority like a beating-stick, ... not to pretend that most of *them* aren't almost as bad in terms of giving the big money what it wants, but all Fox propaganda aside, it's not hard for anyone to see *who did all the things that screwed up the economy.* The deregulation, the spend-spend-spend, consumers, 'the fundamentals of the economy is strong... ' They were claiming these things were a wonderful thing at the time.

Then, of course, when things go wrong, some of the same conservative pols who previously were freezing out any other interests than their own will be saying, See, 'This is your fault, too, just goes to show 'politicians' are awful. ' That's sort of as close to an admission of error as you get. Include yourself in pointing the finger at someone else, later to back out of admitting you had anything to do with it at all.

Whether you want to blame *those who did it,* as including those who *didn't stop it* or not, polls keep showing some twenty to twenty nine percent believe things which are demonstrably-untrue. Even about the very content of a referendum they're voting for. (most of them get their 'news' from Fox.)

What would you like to bet that percentage overlaps quite a bit?

[Phil1]

I tend to agree with Peter. I can only point out that the dems have been in charge (control) of most of the financial regulatory bodies in this gov't. They also tend to promote loans to people that can't possibly pay back (Fanny Mae/Freddy Mack). Look it up. The sad thing is most of these jerks are so well entrenched in the gov't that it will take a nuke to get them out. Of course they are still there engineering a cure for thier screw ups.

Ramzi the terrorist said Amerikans are stupid.

This of course does not absolve the tons of outright fraud and corruption in the financial markets. Just my 2 cents.

[Ratmagiclady]

I tend to agree with Peter. I can only point out that the dems have been in charge (control) of most of the financial regulatory bodies in this gov't. They also tend to promote loans to people that can't possibly pay back (Fanny Mae/Freddy Mack). Look it up. The sad thing is most of these jerks are so well entrenched in the gov't that it will take a nuke to get them out. Of course they are still there engineering a cure for thier screw ups.

Ramzi the terrorist said Amerikans are stupid.

This of course does not absolve the tons of outright fraud and corruption in the financial markets. Just my 2 cents.

Part of the issue with trying to 'blame the Dems cause of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac' and then in turn blame those companies for the whole kit and kaboodle, is the fact that *those* agencies weren't *keeping up with an inflated market* Which basically meant that they were 'losing money' ...The fact that the corporate 'experts' who were rating the securities that turned out to be *junk* created the *crash* that these companies were essentially forced to buy into to keep up doesn't change the causalities.

The fact is that people buying into real estate was shaping up to be what everyone said was the *safest* thing to do, (most especially as opposed to having the poorer folks throwing money at rent every month: people's rent was approaching eighty percent of a lot of folks' income) despite the bubble.

It was on the news *every night.* 'Home ownership.'

That the 'security' of those investments ..even putting people in debt to do so was undermined by the fact that the value of derivatives was a *fiction of financial companies* ....is not something that can be blamed on Fannie mae And Freddy Mac. The causality goes the other way.

[Peter Zack]

They always are when they go against the Libs, aren't they?

I never said one way or the other. You are making and assumption and it is often wrong to assume which can make an ASS[of]U[and]ME.

On some issues I'm, liberal (health care) or maybe better, socialist. On other issues I'm more conservative (crime and certain applications of punishment).


As I said, it's both. If the Dem didn't put the rules in place, fine, then the Rep's should have changed that. That also goes the other way too. Sorry but banks need regulation, so does Wall St. Unfettered brokers and bankers will steal from their mothers and that's what really caused this. Both parties did nothing to stop these guys from ruining the economy. Both parties pushed global free trade that destroyed the manufacturing base.

The poll is stupid. It's nobody's fault. It's everybody's for being asleep at the helm.

[Phil1]

There was a Bushite/repub attempt to change things at FM/FM. It was resoundly defeated by the dems in charge. Bush and the repubs can be faulted by not pursuing the change harder. The sort of stood by and watched the house of cards fall. There is lots on youtube, here is a few:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxMInSfanqg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63siCHvuGFg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6Yv7jT0TX0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSIlUpoUdls

Tons more out there if you care to check it out. Further there had been numerous books wriiten on the pending housing crash years before. Anyone with half a brain
new the bubble was not sustainable. Sure both parties are to blame, Unfortunatly the ass hats that primarily caused this are still there playing games.

A bit further we are fortunate that The banking insurance did not completely fail like the old savings and loan debauche did. Guess who pays both ways, the tax payers. We are so screwed. Just my 2 cents.

[Ratmagiclady]

It still doesn't make the fact that some were simply working from numbers that were already fraudulent (thanks to deregulation which *was* a Republican policy) ...but were *supposed to be good.*


Like when Bush had Powell get before Congress and claim there was evidence of Bush's 'imminent mushroom cloud' (...and besides, you're a traitor and on the side of the terrorists if you don't vote with me anyway...) ...Just cause *the Republicans* backed off.. eventually, trying to make the case there were such WMDs in play over there in Iraq, and connections to Al-Qaeda, and all the other lies....

Doesn't mean they didn't put f'n *Colin Powell* up there to lie to Congress (before he did this and the lies came out, he *had* a very solid rep for knowing what he was talking about by anyone's standards: he in fact dutifully followed orders to *do* it and then resigned in protest) and have them decide based on both false information and extreme media pressure.


So, yeah, a lot of Democrats 'voted for' Bush's war. Doesn't mean they are 'to blame' if they weren't being told the truth about it. Same with the ratings on those mortgage backed securities.