Polling Memo: Conflicting Ideologies

YouGov: President Obama & the American Electorate

As they usually do, towards the end of their survey, the latest from YouGov asked Americans two very simple questions.  One, “How would you describe your own political viewpoint?” And two, “Would you say Barack Obama is….” Respondents answered both questions based on the following scale: very liberal, liberal, moderate, conservative and very conservative.

Overall, Americans described themselves as center right, with the bulk saying they were moderate (31%) followed by 29% who saw themselves as conservative.  The rest broke down as follows: liberal 17 %, very conservative 10% and very liberal 7%.

Onto the second question—Let’s contrast.

While only 24 percent of Americans defined themselves as liberal (17%) or very liberal (7%), an overwhelming 58 percent believe President Obama to be liberal (23%) or very liberal (35%).  Moderate garnered third with 21 percent.

The short?  According to the data, it looks like the American electorate sees President Obama as starkly more liberal than they see themselves.

Maybe that’s part of the reason why a majority disapproves of Barack Obama’s job as President of the United States.

POLLSTER: YouGov for the Economist

DATE: Conducted 6/29-7/1/2013

SAMPLE: Sampled 1,000 General Population Respondents; 18±; MoE ±4.1%

SOURCE: http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/0rd3x7rgj2/20130701econToplines.pdf