Obama voters don't think he's fighting against the Bush policies hard enough

They're wrong again-- and we can prove it.



We had Research 2000 poll voters immediately after the Election ended: Even Scott Brown voters want Democrats to be bolder and they want healthcare reform that includes a public option.



You read that right. By a margin of three-to-two, former Obama voters who voted for Republican Scott Brown yesterday said the Senate healthcare bill "doesn't go far enough." Six-to-one Obama voters who stayed home agreed. And to top it off, 80% of all voters still want the choice of a public option in the bill.

The poll was conducted immediately after the election last night of 1000 registered Massachusetts voters who voted for Obama in 2008. Half of the respondents voted in the MA special election for Republican candidate Scott Brown; half of the respondents did not vote at all. The poll definitively shows that voters who stayed home and voters who switched party allegiance share very common frustration and anger at an economy that continues to work better for Wall Street than Main Street. There's a real populist anger out there. Voters worry that Democrats in power have not done enough to combat the policies of the Bush era. Both sets of voters wanted stronger, more progressive action on health care reform, as well. In summary, the poll shows that the party who fights corporate interests-- especially on making the economy work for most Americans-- will win the confidence of the voters.



• 95% of voters said the economy was important or very important when it came to deciding their vote.



• 53% of Obama voters who voted for Brown and 56% of Obama voters who did not vote in the Massachusetts election said that Democrats enacting tighter restrictions on Wall Street would make them more likely to vote Democratic in the 2010 elections.



• 51% of voters who voted for Obama in 2008 but Brown in 2010 said that Democratic policies were doing more to help Wall Street than Main Street.



• Nearly half (49%) of Obama voters who voted for Brown support the Senate health care bill or think it does not go far enough. Only 11% think the legislation goes too far.

This morning I got e-mails from MoveOn, DFA, and the DPPP all pretty much saying the same thing, something we emphasized earlier in a quote from pollster Celinda Lake: "Scott Brown... became the change-oriented candidate. Voters are still voting for the change they voted for in 2008, but they want to see it." People aren't stupid. They see that Obama's administration, like Bush's, is "delivering more for banks than Main Street." Needless the say, this ishow corporate media-- nor, of course, corporate Democrats-- are spinning the meaning of last night's election. As DFA pointed out, "conservative Democrats and Washington talking heads are claiming that the loss happened because Congress was "'too far to the left.'"MoveOn had much the same message, emphasizing that it was time for Washington to “…start truly fighting for working families. Pass real health care reform. Rein in Wall street. Take on the banks and special interests that stand in the way of change." Like many of us, they're demanding that Democratic Party insiders "stop siding with corporate interests and start fighting for working families." The poll the three organizations commissioned backs up these demands-- and warns Rahm Emanuel-ilk Democrats that it will be all over for them if they continue thwarting the will of the people. Emanuel asked-- rhetorically, of course; the only way he everanything-- a few weeks ago where disenchanted progressives will go other than to keep voting for putrid corporate Democrats, Last night they answered him.

Labels: Change, Hope, special election MA