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Poll: Nevadans angry, pessimistic
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LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
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STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU
Updated: Jul. 30, 2010 | 7:57 a.m.
WASHINGTON -- What is the mood in a state where almost one in five people is out of a job or underemployed? Where you've most likely held a foreclosure notice in your hand or know someone who has? Where nobody knows when the good times will return?
In Nevada, a new poll suggests people variously are angry, pessimistic, dismayed, anxious, fearful, skeptical and cynical, according to analysts reviewing the results. And to the extent Nevadans are looking for someone to blame, it probably does not help to be the Democrats in power.
"In Nevada and in many parts of the country the mood is very pessimistic," said Stephen Miller, chairman of the Department of Economics at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. "People are frightened. That mood out there is being reflected in the responses to the poll.
"In many cases I think people are responding from their gut, and their gut says things are bad," Miller said.
A survey conducted this week for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and KLAS-TV, Channel 8 by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research showed 60 percent of Nevadans believe the country is on the wrong track. On President Barack Obama, 39 percent approve of his job performance while 55 percent disapprove.
Forty percent of Nevadans believe Obama's efforts to stabilize the economy have made things worse while 24 percent say it is has had no effect. Twenty-nine percent say the president has improved the economy.
As for who is to blame for the stagnant economy, Nevadans are split. Forty-six percent point fingers at former President George W. Bush and the Republicans, while 48 percent say it's the fault of Obama and the Democrats for "spending too much money and creating more debt."
When it comes to which party would do a better job of stimulating growth and creating jobs, 45 percent said the Republicans and 40 percent said the Democrats. That is a troubling sign for Democrats seeking re-election, experts said.
The margin of error in the survey, which was conducted Monday through Wednesday was plus or minus 4 percentage points.
Taken together, the poll numbers -- which reflect a general gloominess and a split as to who can show the way out -- "captures a lot of feeling in Nevada that nothing is working," said Erik Herzik, chairman of the political science department at the University of Nevada, Reno.
"The economy is just, at best, dead in the water, if not still sinking," Herzik said. "You are looking and seeing nothing on the horizon that tells you it's going to turn around."
Coupled with looming cuts in state and local governments, "that all starts to feed on itself," he said. "And that leads to a kind of dismay."
"As a package, this is not a very positive vote on the first 18 months of the Obama administration," Herzik said. "Nevadans are a little bit more negative about Obama than the nation as a whole. I don't think I've ever seen where Obama has gotten more blame than Bush."
On other questions in the poll, half of Nevadans say they would oppose establishing a value-added tax, a sort of national sales tax that some White House advisers and members of Congress say could help reduce the deficit. Only 25 percent would support such a tax while 25 percent say they are undecided.
And the health care reform plan signed into law this spring remains unpopular, with 52 percent of Nevadans saying they support repeal while 38 percent want it to remain in effect.
Charlie Crosby, a Las Vegas retiree who hosts a talk show each Thursday on KKVV-AM, 1060, a Christian radio station, said he was at a poker game in Henderson recently and struck up a conversation with a table of players who live in Anthem.
"Six of the 10 of them are in foreclosure," Crosby said. "I know some of the dirt bags of this city, and I know all strata of society, and they all are a little bit worried. Even the people who have a lot of money, they are just tired of the rat race. A lot of them are just plain scared."
The nation is still at war, and it looks like the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is going to pose problems for years to come. But when you ask most Nevadans these days how they view life, "the primary driver is economy, economy, economy," said Brad Coker, managing director of Mason-Dixon.
By that measure, the survey "clearly shows that Obama has not scored many points," Coker said. "His job approval is going to be tied in many ways to how the economy fares. People are looking at him to turn the economy around and so far that hasn't happened, and he's thrown a lot of money at it. At least in the minds of the voters, they don't think things are on the right track."
As for who is being blamed, "a lot of people are blaming everybody," Coker said. "There is a certain level of equal blame (between Democrats and Republicans). But at the end of the day, George W. Bush will never appear on a ballot again but Obama will be there at least one more time and, more important, a lot of his political allies are going to be on the ballot in November."
"Basically people are saying they have lost confidence in government and that is a sad state of affairs," UNLV's Miller said.
"People are fearful, they do not see relief yet. I hear people who are unemployed wondering how in the hell this happened and wondering if there is any way the government can save them," said Mark Peplowski, a political scientist at the College of Southern Nevada.
Amid the gloom, Crosby for one sees signs of promise in the food banks and other volunteer efforts that he said are gaining steam in Las Vegas.
"There is this undercurrent of people who have begun to help one another," he said. "I can see it in the churches."
Contact Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.
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Wow... blister8. I seem to have missed Pres. Obama saying we need to get rid of liberty and personal accountability. I also missed the part where he said he hates this country and wants to destroy it.
I'm sure if you tell us he said it, it must be true. I'm sure blister8 would never lie to us. I mean seriously, why would we believe a man who was elected by the majority of the people of this country for the highest post in the land over the nameless people posting here.
I'm sure blister8 can prove Pres. Obama has told people that he hates the United States. But Pres. Obama is sneaky... He going to throw people off from his beliefs by doing things to help the people of this country. Tax cuts for the middle-class, making BP set aside money to clean up their mess, funding education and clean energy, extending unemployment benefits and helping American companies get back on their feet.
You are so right blister8, why would we ever want a man like that as President.
Dear Renomoron, Keep dreaming. We see how your statist utopian dream is working out. Lies,lies,and more lies. November is coming and the freak fringe left will be out in the cold.
Why do these illegals think its legal to be here? Secure our borders, heavily sanction employers who hire illegals, no amnesty or pathway to citizenship, Vote out Reid and Pelosi. Impeach obama He panders to Mexico, putting the safety of legal american taxpayers at risk, more raids, deport the illegals.VOTE OUT REID HE IS A DISGRACE
Dump Reid - I dont care if your republican or democrat... We need a change..it sure couldn't hurt. Reid is just Obama's puppet and does nothing to stick up for Nevada..His job is to stick up for Obama. Yeah Obama the only prez of the United states that has every told his country to not go to a city and support it (ours)and has sued a state within his own country and promoted others to boycott it because it was simply trying to protect itself by enforcing a federal law. This guy is out of control and Reid is his right hand man. Lets see Reid has gotten us less stimulas monies than any other state, we have the highest foreclosures but our state was allocated zero HUD monies while other states got millions, he did nothing to help Nevada school recieve millions from the "race to the top" federal funding. What has Harry done...oh yeah i've seen his commercial a thousand times as he reminds us, it was him that funded city center, if it wasn't for him calling a bank city center would have never been built. (yeah right)
renostarman wrote on July 30, 2010 09:03 PM:
learn to use spell check or shutup
so.... it is indicted not indited it is energy not enery... perhaps YOUR spell check is broke today?
ELECT ANYONE BUT REID
Dear poor tired teabaggers-I hope you have enjoyed your moment in the sun; frolicking around in you're revolutionary hats and carrying muskets and signs of Obama, and his family in Nazi uniforms. Many of you actually made it on TV bless your hearts. BUT YOUR 15 MINUTES ARE UP! By the time November gets here Angle will be ready to concede BEFORE the election. Rand Paul too. Americans do have short "sound bite" attention spans-but don't sell us to short-OUR MEMORIES AREN'T SHORT ENOUGH TO FORGET WHAT BUSH AND THE RIGHT-WING NEOCONS DID TO THIS COUNTRY. If you think we have forgotten that Obama inherited a job loss rate of 750,000 a month, you are mistaken; if you think we have forgotten Bush going to war by borrowing money from China so he could cut taxes for his "base" you are mistaken, if you think America has forgotten how insurance companies routinely dropped peoples health-coverage to keep a good bottom-line you are mistaken. By the time the election gets here and Veterans see what the Democrats have done for them, when seniors realize what the teaparty would do to SocSec. When HALF our population thinks about "making lemonade from lemons" with a rapist's child? when people come to realize that they can now breath a sign of relief not worrying about losing EVERYTHING if they get sick? I think this election is going to be a "slam dunk"(Bush's WMD war phrase,Oh ya we remember that too!). We remember what the GOP has done to our schools, we remember how the GOP wanted to keep our health-care on status quo, we remember how the GOP gave away the keys to big business, including the Supreme Court giving corporations the rights of a citizen so they can further corrupt our elections. We have SEEN the results of how they run government. AND WE REMEMBER!
Thank You GOP for giving us a senator who had an affair and had his parents pay off the husband. Thank you GOP for giving us a governor who will be or should be indited for perjury, corruption,spousal abuse,jury tampering, etc etc. Thank You GOP for funding our schools so well that we rank last in high school graduation rates and 48th overall. And a VERY big THANK YOU for making Nevada the envy of every good ole boy in South Carolina(the nations former leader in whacko politics) by giving us a senatorial candidate whose beliefs were such an embarrassment that the GOP pulled her website down after her election to hide them. Black helicopters, fluoride communist conspiracy's, second amendment solutions, hiding from the press like Palin, (they can't answer simple questions anyway, so no harm there) she has it all! Thank You GOP for making me so proud of being a Nevadan, that I'm taking a vacation in South Carolina-just to show off !
For eight years conservatives did nothing to curb the insane policies of Bush/Cheney, even as they committed war crimes. Cheney's "energy taskforce" committed us to energy policies they refuse, to this day to tell us about. Now the hysterical right is condemning President Obama because he hasn't "fixed" everything in 18 months? The tax increases you refer to are new, as of last year 95 percent of working class people had their taxes lowered. Reagan may have "lowered" taxes, especially on his base which were and are the rich. His problem and the same problem of Bush 43 was "borrowing" from Social Security to cover the costs. What we are faced with now is, how do we help our fellow citizens, increase job opportunities, implement an enery policy that gets us off oil, and all while dealing with the two wars we are saddled with. The CBO, a non-partisan group, has established that cap and trade will save us billions. Rebuilding our infrastructure and our outdated energy grid would create thousands of good paying jobs, as well as bring our country out of the energy dark ages. China and Saudi Arabia are years ahead of us in this area, conservatives at the behest of their big oil sponsors fight to keep us stuck on oil for decades to come.
Hey moron we will be blaming Bush for the next 50 years! -that's -IF WE CAN FIX THINGS IN 50 YEARS. You idiots elected a moron twice now you want us to start over electing morons again? WHY cause Fox thinks it's right? Get your info from Beck do you?