Economic blame leveled at GOP by voters in new polls, but support for bailout drops

Two new polls are out today that cover public sentiment about both the Fed bailout package and the overall financial crisis spreading beyond Wall Street and beginning to panic Main Street. The results show that Americans are becoming more concerned with the particulars of a government bailout the longer they have to understand it, with a Pew Research poll showing over a  10-point decline in the number of people supporting government intervention in the crisis.

The Pew poll goes further in finding that a majority are both “angry” and “scared” about the bailout, with most pointing to no specific issue, just a general feeling that the plan will both let Wall Street off the hook for their errors and not do enough to solve the existing economic concerns for everyday Americans - job losses, foreclosures, etc.  These results back up the idea that voters are confused about the bailout plan and see it as the only effort made by the government to deal with the multiple crises hitting the economy.

The public’s top worry about the current situation is that “those who are responsible for causing the crisis will be let off the hook.” Nearly three-quarters of Americans (72%) say they are very concerned about this, including 77% of Democrats, 69% of Republicans and 69% of independents. More than six-in-ten (63%) say they are very concerned that “the government’s actions won’t fix the things that caused this problem in the first place.” This, too, is of greater worry to Democrats and independents than to Republicans.

A 54% majority of the public says they are very concerned that the government’s action “won’t do enough to help homeowners in danger of losing their homes.” The partisan gap is greatest on this aspect of the bill, with 66% of Democrats and just 37% of Republicans seeing this as a major concern. Perhaps surprisingly, Republicans do not express particular worry about excessive government involvement in the nation’s financial markets. Overall, 44% of Americans are very concerned that “the government is becoming too involved in financial markets.” This includes roughly equal numbers of Republicans (45%), Democrats (40%) and independents (47%).

The Pew numbers also show Obama holding steady with a big lead among voters on the question of which candidate can better handle the current fiscal crisis. Obama leads McCain in that category 46% to 33%.

A new Washington Post/ABC News poll finds similar results among Americans on their feelings about the bailout. The WaPo/ABC poll has virtually an even split among those favoring and opposing the bailout measure, with concerns coming from both sides about whether or not the bailout will do enough to tame the crisis or if it helps everyday Americans with pre-existing economic concerns - some of the same worries found in the Pew poll.

This poll also asks Americans to assign blame for the market disaster that led to the bailout package. 44% blame Republicans specifically, with 21% blaming Democrats and a bit less assigning bipartisan blame for the crisis. Going further, almost 25% of Americans blame President Bush for the current economic woes.

Overall, voters split about evenly on the failed bill — 45 percent supported it, 47 percent opposed it. Among the reasons for the tepid public reception is that there is a roughly even divide about whether government efforts will prevent the financial situation from deteriorating further still.

And on the particulars, about as many voters said the plan rejected by Congress did “too much” to help major financial institutions that got into trouble as said that the bill did “too little.” Nearly half said the failed plan did not do enough to help the broader economy, and more, 61 percent said there was insufficient assistance for the general public.

Asked to assess responsibility for the legislation’s failure, 44 percent said Republicans were the reason, 21 percent said the Democrats and 17 percent said both sides were responsible.

On the broader economic problems facing the country, voters spread the blame.

In an open-ended question, a quarter of all voters said George W. Bush is responsible for the economy’s relatively poor performance, more than any other single cause. About a quarter name Congress (8 percent), the federal government (8 percent) and Democrats and Republicans (5 percent each) together. Eighteen percent said Wall Street financial institutions and banks shoulder responsibility, 7 percent blame “everyone” and 5 percent highlighted the role of individuals who borrowed too much.

Safe to say that none of this is good news for McCain or the Republicans. Voters just aren’t buying their efforts to assign blame to Democrats overall or Obama specifically. We should wait and see polls conducted after the bailout failure to dole out real judgment, but McCain just isn’t changing the minds he needs to in order to retool his economic image.

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