CNN Poll: Americans place blame for partisanship
The public has plenty of blame to go around for the partisanship in Washington, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll out Wednesday . (Photo Credit: Getty Images/File)
Washington (CNN) - Two-thirds of Americans think that the Republicans in Congress are not doing enough to cooperate with President Barack Obama, according to a new national poll. But a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey, released Wednesday morning, also indicates the public says that the Democrats should be the ones to take the first step toward bipartisan cooperation and they want the Democrats to give up more than the GOP to reach consensus.
Sixty-seven percent of people questioned in the poll say that the GOP is not doing enough to cooperate with the White House, up 6 points from last April. Americans appear split on whether the president is doing enough to reach out to the Republicans, with 52 percent saying Obama's not doing enough to cooperate with the GOP and 47 percent saying he is doing enough to reach across the political aisle. The 52 percent who say the president's not doing enough to encourage bipartisanship is up 16 points from last April.
"That's a big change from last spring, when Obama was still in the honeymoon phase of his first term," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "Congressional Republicans were familiar to Americans, but Obama was new to them, so his early attempts to reach out to the GOP continued to resonate even after it became clear that bipartisanship was not within easy reach."
Even though more people think the Republicans rather than the White House are not doing enough to reach bipartisan consensus, according to the survey, 54 percent believe the Democratic party should take the first step toward developing bipartisan solutions to the country's problems. Forty-two percent say the GOP should take that first step.
Just over half of those questioned say the Democrats should give up more of its proposals to achieve bipartisanship, while 43 percent want to see the GOP make more compromises.
"Americans feel the ball is in the Democrats' court," adds Holland. "They may not be held responsible for the problem, but since they are in charge of the government, Americans appear to think they are responsible for the solution."
According to CNN poll numbers released Sunday, Americans overwhelmingly think that the government in this country is broken, but the public overwhelmingly holds out hope that what's broken can be fixed.
The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted February 12-15, with 1,023 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points for the overall survey.
- CNN Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
From CNN Politics
- Grand jury indictments, explained
- 10 Cards Charging 0% Interest Until 2024
- US flying surveillance drones farther south over Black Sea after collision with Russian fighter jet, officials say
- US to send Patriot missile systems and tanks to Ukraine faster than originally planned
- Bruce Springsteen, Gladys Knight among group honored at the White House
- Untitled
This is good news. We don't need the expensive "Change" Obama is promising us.
It is amazing how CNN puts its spin on thing. They know darn well that the Republicans would rather see Obama fail then meet the demands of the American people. Rather than call the Republicans out for their behavior, CNN always find a way to focus or include the democrats in the no-nonsense behavior of the Republicans. The problem here is that CNN is a Fox in disguise.
I really think it is time to throw the bums out...all of them. Every congressman and senator should be fired, regardless of party, and we should start over. Anyone interested in running should be forced to clearly articulate what they will do to insure that the American political system is fixed; and anyone with an ideology to fall on their sword over, should be disqualified . I am sick and tired of every one of them. Their only concern is getting re-elected and they will resort to any measure, including fear mongering and outright lying, to do so. Enough is enough. We need to show our representatives that they are not representing our best interests and we are not going to let them takes us down the drain.
We Republicans are not cooperating because the White House is wrong......face it folks.......the White House is WRONG!!
I know this is irrelevant to the article, (which to me was kind of a "well, obviously" thing anyways) but that picture is so wonderfully well-done. Very cool photo of the Capitol in the snow.
Why is it Americans always expect the Democrats to act responsibly and be the grown ups? Oh it's because the republicans always act like spoiled, petulant children, stomping their feet and screaming when they don't get their way.
How can you work with a party that has no interest in coming on board with anything? So the partisanship is solely coming from the Republicans. They don't want to see this President succeed that has been made loud and clear by Jim Demint as regards his health care comment. Break Obama and this will be his Waterloo!!! Such is their dislike for this President. They have no thought for the country at all it's about political point scoring and nothing less. The Republicans are a disgrace to this country.
Vote 'em all in. Vote 'em all out.
The CNN Opinion/Research Corp. is nothing more than a shill for corporate America. There sole reason for existence is to muddy issues presented before the American public, and they do that quite well.
Apparently thats the same 67% that got a C or below in American History class. The President is a figurehead in our governmental structure. The real power rests in the halls of Congress and ultimatly with the people of the United States. You can never say that someone in Congress or the Senate is not cooperating with the president, only the other way around.
Not suprising and also not worrisome to the majority of conservatives. Now if we could just get them Dems to understand that the vast majority of Americans don't want their health care "reform" and want this ridiculous and unsustainable spending to stop – then we would be getting somewhere.
Compared with the way the past Republican administrations has "worked with" the Democrats in Congress, President Obama is bending over backwards. Remember, when President Bush and the Republicans wanted something done, they just manipulated the rules, passed their obscene tax cuts to their buddies, and thumbed their nose at the Democrats and the American people.
Forget the polls repub haters,just do your normal and blame the GOP or Bush.When Nov comes the poll that counts is the voters box.If the dems do not make progress,they are gone.You did nothing when you had the votes and now still blame your failure on the GOP/Bush.
I understand that the Republicans feel that they have points to make, but they are also being obstructionists and sensationalizing things to a point of providing misinformation to the American public. That's not right.
These people are all elected by the voters which is also their bosses so in reality, they should be using their votes for the voters, not thenselves or special interest groups that they allow in their congressional offices.
Either work for us or be voted out in november....
JUST SAY NO and be proud to do so,you are saving America.
Amazing. Your tease for this story is "Bad News for GOP"? You must have searched dozens of polls to find a statistic that went negative on the Repubs – and this one is so benign, amidst massive disgust in the same poll with all of Congress and the WH. How desperate are you to shill for the Dems!
Completely idiotic. You can't have it both ways, people. If you want bipartisanship, it needs to go both ways, and both sides need to be willing to give things up. You can't insist that Republicans aren't working towards bipartisanship but that the Democrats are the ones that need to give in to Republican demands. Bipartisanship doesn't work that way.
The Republicans can make an ideological case for a vote on the brand of toilet paper in the men's room.
Just maybe if NObama would tell the truth once-progress might happen-he talks out of both sides of his mouth
The Dem's are responsible for the solution. The Republican'ts are the problem, and have created most of the problems now facing America.
So now the President has to take responsibility and do more to reach the "Party of Just Say No"??? I don't think so! I think if No is all they can say, then No is what we should say to Republicans with our votes! Just say No? It works both ways!!!!
Of course it's the Republican's fault for the stalemate. It's part of their platform to reject anything different from them—be it ideas, religion, or race.
Dems can't blame the GOP. They don't need them. They have the majority. They could pass what ever they want. The problem is they don't have the full support of the democratic party. Stop blaming the GOP for your own lack of support.
All NObama wants is to push his desires on all of America like it or not and his own party is starting to wake up to his agenda of control.