Stimulus Is Favored By Most Americans: Poll

A new poll from Politico suggests that the public does not see Barack Obama's stimulus package in the same category as one of the myriad number of bailouts that the Congress has passed, and that Republicans (or Democrats) counting on a populist backlash against the measure have their work cut out for them.

Politico's poll (.pdf), conducted by the firm Garin-Hart-Yang, reports that 79 percent of Americans favor the stimulus, versus just 17 percent opposed. I would take some issue with GHY's question wording, as it characterizes the stimulus in rather flattering terms ("a proposal to create jobs and strengthen the economy") but does not mention the stimulus's pricetag; this is not too far from message testing as opposed to opinion polling. Nevertheless, it suggests that -- if framed appropriately by the administration -- the stimulus could be quite popular indeed, a finding also implied by other surveys.

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