Tea Party Tops GOP on Three-Way Generic Ballot

Don · Dec 7, 2009

Rasmussen's latest:

Running under the Tea Party brand may be better in congressional races than being a Republican.

In a three-way Generic Ballot test, the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone <NOBR>survey</NOBR> finds Democrats attracting 36% of the vote. The Tea Party candidate picks up 23%, and Republicans finish third at 18%. Another 22% are undecided.

Among voters not affiliated with either major party, the Tea Party comes out on top. Thirty-three percent (33%) prefer the Tea Party candidate, and 30% are undecided. Twenty-five percent (25%) would vote for a Democrat, and just 12% prefer the GOP.

Among Republican voters, 39% say they’d vote for the GOP candidate, but 33% favor the Tea Party option.

So people would rather vote for a pig in a poke than anything the GOP has to offer, and independent voters would rather have the pig than a Democrat as well.

Lots more stats about various questions asked in the link.

Forty-one percent (41%) of all voters nationwide say Republicans and Democrats are so much alike that a new party is needed to represent the American people.

Now here's a real shocker.

Among the Political Class, not a single respondent picked the Tea Party candidate.

However, among those with populist or Mainstream views, 31% prefer the Tea Party, and 26% are undecided. Twenty-three percent (23%) pick a Republican candidate, and 19% are for the Democrat.

There may be some Hope and Change on the horizon; just not the type we were offered in the last election.

StephanieFox · Dec 7, 2009

Sigh.

blacbird · Dec 7, 2009

All of this will change dramatically once actual names of candidates are attached.

As it always does.

caw

maxmordon · Dec 7, 2009

blacbird said:
All of this will change dramatically once actual names of candidates are attached.

As it always does.

caw

Ross Perrot?

blacbird · Dec 7, 2009

maxmordon said:
Ross Perrot?

A prime example. That one really set the world on fire, didn't it?

caw

Bird of Prey · Dec 7, 2009

I seriously doubt the American people will ever dig themselves out of the 2 party rut, but it would be grand if they did. . . .

MattW · Dec 7, 2009

Bird of Prey said:
I seriously doubt the American people will ever dig themselves out of the 2 party rut, but it would be grand if they did. . . .

If only Palin starts her own party and pulls all the Big Government, Big Religion "conservatives" away from the GOP, there could be 3 parties.

Not the best solution most would be looking for, but still progress.

Dommo · Dec 7, 2009

I think you might see a small number of libertarians start creeping into congress, possibly enough to be spoiler votes in tightly contested legislatures(say like a half dozen or so), and maybe a few more independents. With the damage the major political parties have done to themselves in the past few years, anyone who looks like they're not associated with the pack probably has the best opportunity in years to try to knock off incumbents.

SPMiller · Dec 7, 2009

I don't know how many more teabagging jokes the world can possibly handle.

jennontheisland · Dec 7, 2009

MattW said:
If only Palin starts her own party and pulls all the Big Government, Big Religion "conservatives" away from the GOP, there could be 3 parties.

Not the best solution most would be looking for, but still progress.

Exactly what happened in Canada when the ultra conservatives broke off from the Conservatives to form the Reform Party. A few years later they realized they had to "unite the right" if they ever wanted in power again.

SPMiller said:
I don't know how many more teabagging jokes the world can possibly handle.

Wouldn't this result in some kind of three-way teabagging? Man, we need an erotica author in here to explain that one.

Oh hai!

blacbird · Dec 7, 2009

jennontheisland said:
Exactly what happened in Canada when the ultra conservatives broke off from the Conservatives to form the Reform Party. A few years later they realized they had to "unite the right" if they ever wanted in power again.

Nailed it. Until somebody comes up with an actual framework of practically implementable ideas, these "third-party" tantrums will only serve the purpose of skewing an occasional election one way or another toward Repubs or Dems. The tea-baggers are the embodiment of Shakespeare's famous line, a "movement":

"That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

The one immediate good thing they might do, however, is drive the Bushian Neocons so far underground we'll never see them again. One can always hope.

caw

Zoombie · Dec 8, 2009

Crazy Neocons are like Darkspawn, Black, they just come back once they unearth an archdeamon to lead them. Then BAM, you have a Blight on you're hands...

Wow, I've been playing way way way too much Dragon Age...

Anywho, I'm for having a third party pop up.

...

...

Diana, Don, what the hell is taking you so long!?

Don · Dec 8, 2009

Dang, Zoombie, am I bat-shit crazy or the salvation of the political system? Make up your mind, would ya?

robeiae · Dec 8, 2009

blacbird said:
All of this will change dramatically once actual names of candidates are attached.

As it always does.

caw

Right.

I find it worrisome that only 22% are undecided, when 0% know who the candidates actually are and what the office being filled actually is.

Don · Dec 8, 2009

robeiae said:
Right.

I find it worrisome that only 22% are undecided, when 0% know who the candidates actually are and what the office being filled actually is.

Well, seeing as how nobody in authority has issued a proclamation telling people how to think in regard to this hypothetical tea party, I thought 22% was a pretty good showing.

What's the UN say? What's the concensus among the climate scientists?

dclary · Dec 8, 2009

Zoombie said:
Crazy Neocons are like Darkspawn, Black, they just come back once they unearth an archdeamon to lead them. Then BAM, you have a Blight on you're hands...

Wow, I've been playing way way way too much Dragon Age...

Anywho, I'm for having a third party pop up.

...

...

Diana, Don, what the hell is taking you so long!?

Diana's on vacation in Bermuda. Remember?

Williebee · Dec 8, 2009

am I bat-shit crazy or the salvation of the political system?

Are these mutually exclusive?

Tea Party Tops GOP on Three-Way Generic Ballot

Don

All Living is Local

StephanieFox

Maybull the Bulldog

blacbird

maxmordon

Penúltimo

blacbird

Bird of Prey

Benefactor Member

MattW

Company Man

Dommo

On Mac's double secret probation.

SPMiller

Prodigiously Hanged

jennontheisland

the world is at my command

blacbird

Zoombie

Dragon of the Multiverse

Don

All Living is Local

robeiae

Touch and go

Don

All Living is Local

dclary

Unabashed Mercenary

Williebee

Capeless, wingless, & yet I fly.