Poll Watch: Rasmussen 2012 Presidential Survey

Rasmussen 2012 Presidential Survey

I’m going to read you a short list of people in the news. For each, please let me know if it would be more accurate to describe that person’s views as mainstream or extreme.

Mitt Romney

• Mainstream 48% 
• Extreme 26%
• Not sure 26%

Barack Obama

• Mainstream 44% 
• Extreme 44%
• Not sure 12%

Rick Perry

• Mainstream 36%
• Extreme 36%
• Not sure 28%

Michele Bachmann

• Mainstream 27%
• Extreme 51%
• Not sure 22%

Ron Paul

• Mainstream 17%
• Extreme 52%
• Not sure 32%

Survey of 1,000 likely voters was conducted September 6-7, 2011. The margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points.

Inside the numbers:

Seventy-two percent (72%) of voters in the president’s party describe his views as mainstream, while 78% of Republicans regard them as extreme. Voters not affiliated with either political party are more evenly divided, with 46% who say his views are mainstream and 40% who say they are extreme. 

Tea Party voters overwhelmingly see Obama’s views as extreme (92%) while a majority of non-Tea Party voters (54%) say the opposite.