Earning Respect
A new Rasmussen Poll may have some folks scratching their heads…but those are the ones who still don’t understand Donald Trump’s appeal to vast numbers of ordinary Americans.
Rasmussen gave voters a list of American politicians, and asked which ones on the list they respected. Trump secured 42 percent, far and away the rest of the list…Joe Biden only mustered half the support Trump got. Then came Barack Obama at 17 percent. No one else on the list, which included Bernie Sanders, Nikki Haley, Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton, got anywhere close to double figures.
75 percent of Republicans said Trump was the leader they respected most. You might expect that. But in something that should worry Democrats this November, among unaffiliated voters, Trump scored 39 percent…more than Biden at 13 percent and Obama at 17 percent combined.
We keep saying independents will be crucial in November, and Trump has the largest slice of those in the “respect” category. How that translates into showing up and voting is another issue.
Speaking of numbers that will concern Democrats, more women voters said Trump was the most respected leader, at 43 percent…Obama scored 22 and Biden 18…again, Trump has more than those two Democrats combined…which negates the argument some might pose that Obama and Biden split the Democrat responses. Maybe so, but combining the two numbers still doesn’t reach Trump levels.
This poll was conducted between Feb. 5 and 7, of 749 likely voters nationwide, and has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3 percentage points.
Given the issues about the U.S. role on the world stage and leadership concerns…who voters respect might very well translate into votes in the general election. These numbers, therefore, bear watching.
