Americans are prepared to blame Congressional Republicans any failure to avert the fiscal cliff, according to a poll on Tuesday.
While 51 percent of Americans don’t expect a deal, Democrats have substantially more faith than Republicans in the ability of President Barack Obama and Congressional Republicans to compromise, according to the Washington Post-Pew Research Center poll. Two-thirds of Republicans aren’t anticipating a deal, and only a quarter expect one. But a plurality of Democrats — 47 percent to 40 percent — expect Obama and the GOP to reach an agreement.
Congressional Republicans are likely to face the blame for any impact: 53 percent of Americans said the GOP would be at fault, compared with 29 percent who said the same of the president. Ten percent said both would be to blame. The gap is even bigger among independent voters, only 23 percent of whom would blame the president.
Consider that math: 51% believe we’ll sail off the fiscal cliff and 53% blame Republicans — before any failure at all. Nothing has happened yet and already people are blaming Republicans. If Republicans were hoping people haven’t been paying attention, they’re going to be disappointed. Republican obstructionism has become so ingrained in people’s minds that they expect it.
Republicans are going to have to spend a lot of time on image repair. They’ve dinged their reputation much worse than they’d probably imagined.
