Photograph by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Corbin J. Shea/Navy Media Content Services via Bloomberg

Aviation ordnanceman practice color guard drills aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) in the Atlantic Ocean on Feb. 15, 2013.

The public apparently has little sympathy for complaints about the across-the-board cutting ordered in most discretionary federal spending.

The public is more concerned, a poll shows, about the cuts in Defense spending.

By a margin of 61 percent to 33 percent, people surveyed by ABC News and the Washington Post support the non-defense budget cutting that started Friday.

By a nearly identical margin, ABC reports, they oppose the cut in military spending.

The poll run by Langer Research Associates  found support for the non-defense cuts among Democrats (57 percent) and Republicans (75 percent) as well — while opposition to the defense cuts ran 73 percent among Republicans and split Democrats “down the middle.”

This would appear to place little pressure on Congress to restore much of the cuts as it writes a spending plan for the remainder of the fiscal year ending in September. Yet it would also tend to support a move in Washington to give the Pentagon more discretion over how the cuts are implemented, rather than requiring them across the board.

That work starts today in the House, with a March 27 deadline for writing a new budget.

Original post is Most Cuts OK, Not Defense: Poll by Political Capital.

Photograph by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

People look at boats on display at The Miami International Boat Show on Feb. 15, 2013 in Miami Beach, Florida.

That’s the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index for the seven-day period ended Feb. 24.

The index, based on Americans’ ratings of the national economy, the buying climate and their personal finances, improved to the highest level this year after climbing for the fourth straight week. The index was minus 33.4 in the previous week.

The index has been higher just five times since March 2008, when the economy was in a recession, according to Langer Research Associates, which compiles the index using telephone surveys.

“Rising residential real-estate values, combined with stock prices close to five-year highs, are speeding a rebound in household wealth that will help underpin spending,” Bloomberg’s Jeanna Smialek reported. “Nonetheless, the highest gasoline prices in four months and disagreement among lawmakers on how to close the federal budget deficit may check the recent gains in sentiment.”

Original post is Bloomberg by the Numbers: -32.8 by Political Capital.

Photograph by Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg

An attendee holds an American flag with an image of President Barack Obama before the start of the presidential inauguration in Washington on Jan. 21, 2013.

With 60 percent of Americans surveyed voicing a favorable view of President Barack Obama at the start of his second term, his popularity is at its highest since his first year in office, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll. His rating has gained 10 points since last summer, in the heat of the presidential election contest.

Obama last saw this level of approval in November 2009, according to the poll run by Langer Research Associates. His popularity had peaked at 79 percent days before he took office four years ago.

A narrow majority also approved of his second-term inaugural address last week – 51 percent approve in this poll — while just 24 percent disapproved, a 2-1 ratio in favor of the speech. A quarter of Americans surveyed offered no opinion of it.

Langer notes: “Favorability – which differs from job approval – is the most basic rating of a public figure’s personal popularity. Obama’s exceeds (George W.) Bush’s at the start of his second term by 5 percentage points, but trails (Bill) Clinton’s by 5 and (Ronald) Reagan’s by 12.”

More people voiced a “strongly” favorable opinion of Obama than those who had a strongly unfavorable one, 39 percent versus 26 percent, and twice as many strongly approved of his inaugural speech as those who disapproved. Langer: “It’s the first time he’s been significantly more strongly popular than unpopular since early 2010.”

The polarization of the American populace has not disappeared, however: The president remains highly popular within his own party, with 92 percent favorability. And it’s noteworthy that 60 percent of independents see him favorably, also a best since his first year in office. He remains unpopular among 80 percent of Republicans.

See the full results of the poll, a survey of 1,022 adults conducted Jan. 23-27, with a possible margin of error of 3.5 percentage points, here.

Original post is Obama More Popular than Bush — Less than Clinton, Reagan, at Second Start by Political Capital.

Photograph by Michael Short/Zuma Press via Corbis

Payday Advance signs at California Check Cashing in Oakland, Calif. Less money will be in U.S. paychecks due to a higher Social Security tax rate.

That’s the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index for the week ended Jan. 6.

The index, which is derived from how Americans rate the economy, the buying climate and their personal finances on a scale of minus 100 to plus 100, fell from minus 31.8 in the previous week.

“Paychecks are shrinking after Congress last week let the tax that funds Social Security benefits revert to 6.2 percent from 4.2 percent,” Bloomberg News reporters Alex Kowalski and Shobhana Chandra wrote yesterday.

The index, while still well below zero, had “its best start to a new year since 2008,” according to Langer Research Associates, which produces the figures for Bloomberg News. Yet there are “real questions as to whether it can consolidate and extend” the gains it made late last year, Langer Research Associates said in a written analysis.

Original post is Bloomberg by the Numbers: -34.4 by Political Capital.

Photograph by Scott Olson/Getty Images

A customer in a show room in Niles, Illinois.

That’s how much the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index rose during 2012.

The index, which measures Americans’ perceptions of the national economy, their personal finances and the buying climate, was minus 31.8 in the week ended Dec. 30, compared with minus 44.7 in the week ended Jan. 8. The index ranges from minus 100 to plus 100.

The increase was the biggest in a calendar year since 1998, when the index rose by 14 points, to plus 25 from plus 11.

During 2012, the index ranged from a low of minus 47.4 in mid-August and a high of minus 31.4, reached twice in April.

Despite the rise in the index, it’s still “far below” its long-term average of minus 15.8, “a testament to the still-shaky recovery,” Langer Research Associates, which produces the index, said in a written analysis.

Bloomberg News reported on the index yesterday.

Original post is Bloomberg by the Numbers: 12.9 by Political Capital.

Photograph by Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

Valley Appliance employees deliver a Maytag Corp. electric stove to a customer in Princeton, Illinois.

That’s the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index for the week ended Nov. 4, the highest rating of the economy in more than four years.

The index, produced for Bloomberg by Langer Research Associates, asks people to rate the national economy, the buying climate and their personal finances on a scale of plus 100 to minus 100, then averages the results of the three responses. Twenty percent of those surveyed had a positive view of the economy.

With the presidential race over and the job market seeing improvements, the sentiment may continue to rise, according to Joseph Brusuelas, a senior economist at Bloomberg LP.

“The underlying improvement in the trend across all major consumer confidence readings will reassert itself in coming weeks,” Brusuelas said. “That being said, given the damage from the storm, a transitory downdraft in consumer comfort should be expected.”

In the week leading up to the election, the CCI among Democrats fell to minus 23.5 from minus 22.9 the previous week. Republican sentiment decreased to minus 39.6 from minus 37.8. Sentiment among Independents, or swing-voters, rose to minus 39.7, the highest since June, from minus 40.7 the prior week.

“There was a clear political element to economic views heading into the election,” with Democrats being the least pessimistic, said Gary Langer, president of Langer Research Associates.

———

The Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index, compiled by Langer Research Associates in New York, conducts telephone surveys with a random sample of 1,000 consumers 18 and older. Each week, 250 respondents are asked for their views on the economy, personal finances and buying climate; the percentage of negative responses is subtracted from the share of positive views and divided by three. The most recent reading is based on the average of responses over the previous four weeks.

The comfort index can range from 100, indicating every participant in the survey had a positive response to all three components, to minus 100, signaling all views were negative. The margin of error for the headline reading is 3 percentage points.

Original post is Bloomberg by the Numbers: -34.4 by Political Capital.

Photograph by Jewel Samad/AFP via Getty Images

President Barack Obama comforts Hurricane Sandy victim Dana Vanzant as he visits a neighborhood in Brigantine, New Jersey, on Oct. 31, 2012.

While the presidential election, nationally, remains a virtually tied contest, likely voters of all political stripes have blessed President Barack Obama’s response to the storm that lashed the Northeast this week.

The ABC News/Washington Post daily tracking, for several days now, has found likely voters statistically tied in their support of Obama or Republican Mitt Romney, with the latest results showing a 49-49 percent dead heat.

In last night’s polling, 78 percent of those surveyed rated Obama’s response to Hurricane Sandy excellent or good, while just 8 percent saw it negatively.

Obama joined New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie today in a tour of the storm wreckage in the state.

Romney, who like Obama suspended campaigning for more than a day because of the storm, and attended a storm relief staging event, was rated positively for his response to the hurricane by 44 percent of those surveyed and negatively by 21 percent, with 35 percent voicing no opinion.

The federal government’s overall response to the storm was rated about as well as the president’s, 73 percent positive, in the survey produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates.

The ratings are higher than the government’s, or former President George W. Bush’s, reaction to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Original post is Obama’s Hurricane Response: 78-Percent Positive in Tracking Poll by Political Capital.

Photograph by Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images

Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney holds a rally at Defiance High School, in Defiance, Ohio, on Oct. 25, 2012.

The gap between Republican Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama has widened in one poll — Romney up 5 percentage points in the Gallup daily tracking surveys — and narrowed in another poll — Romney up 1 point in the ABC/Washington Post track.

Margin of error stuff, for the most part, in a race tied nationally.

But another number stands out in the ABC/Post survey: How many voters have been personally touched by the presidential campaigns.

Over the past month, the two campaigns each have contacted 20 percent of all likely voters nationally, the survey shows.

In eight swing states, nearly four in 10 voters have been contacted by the campaigns: 37 percent in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin say they have personally been asked for their vote, either by phone, online or in person by the Obama campaign in the past month And 35 percent said they had heard from the Romney campaign, the Post’s Chris Cillizza notes at The Fix.

Also: Romney is catching up in that measure — more had heard from Obama than Romney two weeks ago.

“President Obama and Mitt Romney are running essentially even not only in voter preferences but also in voter contact, a critical element of a race so close the campaigns’ ground games could well make the difference,” writes pollster Gary Langer.

“After advances earlier this week, there’s no further gain for Romney on key economic measures in today’s poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, he writes. And strong enthusiasm among his supporters, which rose sharply after the first debate, has been essentially stable since – neither losing nor gaining more ground, and even with Obama, but not ahead.”

“Those results make the campaigns’ get-out-the-vote efforts potentially pivotal,” Langer concludes.

Romney had 51 percent of likely voters in today’s Gallup track, Obama 46 percent.

That’s a two-point widening from the day before.

Romney had 49 percent in the ABC/Post track, Obama 48.

That’s a two-point narrowing from the day before.

A turnout election. Contacts, contacts, contacts.

Original post is Obama, Romney Contact 4 in 10 Voters in Swing States — `Pivotal’ by Political Capital.

Photograph by Alex Wong/Getty Images

Mitt Romney at a campaign rally on Sept. 25, 2012 in Vandalia, Ohio.

Mitt Romney’s remark about the 47 percent of Americans who pay no taxes, thus “victims” of government dependency and politically unreachable by his campaign, hasn’t gone over well.

“Americans disagree with Romney’s recently leaked comment to high-dollar donors that 47 percent of the public view themselves as victims dependent on the government — an assertion he later said was stated inelegantly yet is a key part of his campaign message,” Julie Davis reports today on the latest Bloomberg National Poll. Fifty-one percent surveyed said Romney is wrong and Americans work hard and sometimes need government help, while 41 percent said he was right and more people should be able to make it on their own.

An ABC/Washington Post poll has found 54 percent viewing Romney’s remarks negatively (more later.)

As Davis reports,  Romney’s negative ratings are preventing him from capitalizing on President Barack Obama’s vulnerabilities in the race for the White House.

Half of Americans hold an unfavorable view of Romney — a September high for a presidential challenger in the last three decades — and 49 percent of likely voters consider the former Massachusetts governor out-of-touch compared with 40 percent who say that of Obama in the Bloomberg survey conducted Sept. 21-24.

Still, Obama heads into the closing stretch of the race with a majority of Americans — 53 percent — disapproving of his handling of the economy, the Bloomberg Poll shows, and Romney holding a slim edge as the candidate likely voters rate best able to create jobs. The president does have one clear advantage — his economic plan is breaking through with more Americans, who give him a 48 percent to 39 percent advantage over Romney on having a vision for a successful future.

In the head-to-head contest, Obama leads Romney among likely voters, 49 percent to 43 percent, even as 60 percent of Americans say the nation is headed off on the wrong track as the president completes his first term.

ABC News and the Washington Post also have found that “public criticism of Romney’s race for the White House has risen sharply, with six in 10 Americans expressing a negative opinion of how he’s handling his campaign and a majority responding unfavorably to his comments on people who don’t pay income taxes.”

Gary Langer, of Langer Research Associates, reports that 61 percent of those surveyed in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll hold an unfavorable view of how Romney’s handling his presidential campaign, up by 12 percentage points since mid-July. Far fewer, 35 percent, rate Romney’s performance positively.

Obama’s ratings for handling his campaign are substantially better, 54-43 percent, favorable-unfavorable. And while ratings of Romney’s campaign have grown more negative, favorable ratings of Obama’s campaign efforts have gained eight points since July.

Langer notes: “These ratings follow controversy last week about Romney’s remark at a Florida fundraiser that 47 percent of Americans don’t pay income taxes, see themselves as “victims” and lack personal responsibility. Fifty-four percent in this survey, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, see his `recent comments about people who don’t pay income taxes’  negatively; 32 percent respond favorably, with the rest unsure.”

Original post is Romney’s 47% Remark: Negative by Political Capital.

Photograph by James Branaman/Zuma Press

Supporters cheer on President Barack Obama as he takes the stage at St. Petersburg College for the kick-off event of his two day Florida bus tour on Sept. 8, 2012.

For the first time since April, more people hold a favorable view of President Barack Obama than an unfavorable view, in the ABC News/Washington Post survey this week that portrays the presidential contest as virtually tied among those most likely to vote.

Obama’s favorability rating in the survey — 52 percent — also stands eight points higher than Republican Mitt Romney’s, in the poll of registered voters conducted during three days following the Democratic National Convention.

The president’s balance of ratings has returned to a positive view — 52 favorable, 45 percent unfavorable —  after dipping “underwater” last week following the Republican National Convention.

Romney’s balance remains underwater, in pollster Gary Langer’s term — 44 percent favorable, 49 percent unfavorable — marking the 12th time in 14 ABC/Post polls this year that the voting public has expressed a more negative than positive view of the Republican nominee.

Obama’s standing has improved within his own party, Langer Research Associates found, with 89 percent viewing him favorably — and his standing has improved to 53-44 among women after sliding into negative territory following the Republican convention.

At the same time, the president’s standing among independent registered voters has changed little — 46 percent negative, 49 percent positive in the latest survey, compared with 45 percent negative, 51 percent positive last week.

`While neither Romney (in particular) nor Obama are in a strong position in terms of personal popularity, others have done worse in previous post-convention polling – a comparative improvement especially for Romney, whose favorability ratings before the convention were the lowest for any presumptive nominee in pre-convention ABC/Post polls dating to 1984,” Langer reports.

In previous post-convention polling, two Democratic presidential candidates received at least numerically lower favorability ratings than Obama’s and Romney’s today — Senator John Kerry in 2004 and Michael Dukakis in 1988.

The ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted Sept. 5-9,  a survey of 837 registered voters with a possible margin of error of four percentage points.

Original post is Obama’s Positive Ratings, Romney’s `Underwater’ — ABC/Post Poll by Political Capital.