The American Spectator

The Spectacle Blog

In an earlier post, I noted that the 52 percent public support for the stimulus bill reflected in the Gallup poll was a bit tepid, but a new Rasmussen poll finds support dropping to 42 percent with a near equal number of opposition at 39 percent. Some of the numbers behind the numbers are interesting, too. For instance, while support for the bill among Republicans and Democrats has remained relatively stable, "support among unaffiliated voters has fallen. A week ago, unaffiliateds were evenly divided on the plan, with 37% in favor and 36% opposed. Now, 50% of unaffiliated voters oppose the plan while only 27% favor it." In addition, 46 percent of those polled are worried that the government will end up doing too much, compared with 42 percent who worry it will do too little.

If these results end up being corroborated by other polls, it would suggest that Republican attacks on the bill have been gaining traction. Another two weeks of hammering away at this thing, and we could see a massive errosion of public support. At the very minimum, we should hold off on adopting the conventional wisdom that the legislation is broadly popular.