If Barack Obama wants to run as a populist he needs to get a better pulse of the people or maybe start reading some polls.
I wrote here about Barack’s confusion about what he wants to do with Capital Gains taxes and that a majority of Americans are against any increase in those taxes. In fact they go so far as to say that they believed that a President who raised Capital Gains taxes would raise other taxes as well.
It appears the American folks can still see how 2+2=4.
In a Rasmussen Report poll released Tuesday, 60% of Americans believe that tax increases will hurt the economy. As you might expect, 74% of Republicans agreed with that statement. What Barack needs to pay attention to is that 49% of Democrats and 60% of unaffiliated voters believe the same. Contrary to his primary results, this is an issue that truly crosses racial lines as 61% of White voters and 57% of African-American voters agree with the statement. In the “Can you hear me now,” observation of the poll, a significant majority of 70% of those under 30 believe that increasing taxes will hurt the economy.
With the economy now the number one issue in the Presidential campaign and McCain being more trusted to handle economic issues, Barack needs to figure out whether to lead, follow or get out of the way. Continuing to provide confusing, non specific tax and economic proposals are not going to help Barack reach his goal.
