Poll: Republicans say Obama more of an 'imminent threat' than Putin

Republicans are more concerned about the imminent threat posed to the United States by President Barack Obama than by Russia’s Vladimir Putin or Syria’s Bashar Assad, according to a new poll from Reuters/Ipsos.

Thirty-four percent of Republicans see the president as an imminent threat, compared to only 25 percent for Putin and 23 percent for Assad. A roughly equal number of Republicans said Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei was an imminent threat equal to Obama.

Fear of the Democratic Party broadly also outranked fear of Putin and Assad, with 27 percent of Republicans saying they believe the Democrats pose an “imminent threat” to the country.

The poll found that only 12 percent of Democrats saw Republican House Speaker John Boehner as an imminent threat — less than Putin or Assad, but more than Cuban President Raúl Castro and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Roughly double the number of Independents who saw Obama as an imminent threat also viewed Boehner in the same light. Among independents, Obama still narrowly edged out Putin and Assad on the threat scale, but ranked far below Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, Islamic State’s executioner “Jihadi John,” North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Khamenei.

On the issue of climate change, the survey found another stark divide. Thirty-three percent of Democrats said that climate change or global warming constitutes an imminent threat — nearly double the number who said the same about Islam — whereas 38 percent of Republicans said Islam is an imminent threat and only 12 percent said the same of climate change.

Independents saw Islam as a slightly greater threat than climate change, 26 percent to 21 percent.

The poll also found that adults across the political spectrum see the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and Al Qaeda as the two greatest threats to the United States, far outranking any nation-states. The most threatening countries on the list were North Korea, Iran, Syria and Russia, in that order.

Cuba ranked last of all countries mentioned, with only 6 percent of adults saying the island nation poses an imminent threat. Eight percent saw Israel, the CIA and the NSA in the same way.

The poll was conducted among adults across the country from March 16 to 24. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points for Democrats and Republicans, but 6 percentage points for independents.

For adults generally the margin of error is 2.1 percentage points.