| 73% Say Roberts Confirmation Likely | ||||||||||||||||||
|
Survey of 1,000 Adults August 19-20, 2005
|
August 22, 2005--Seventy-three percent (73%) of Americans believe Judge John Roberts is likely to be confirmed. That's up slightly from 69% at the end of July. Just 12% say confirmation is not likely, including 1% who say Roberts is "not at all likely" to be confirmed. The results show why some Senate Democrats consider the confirmation debate a risky balancing act according to New York Times. According to the Times, "Failing to press [Roberts] could look weak to [the Democrats] liberal base. But attacking too hard could draw Democrats into a losing battle on the treacherous turf of abortion, race and religion..." [More Below] Overall, the numbers have changed very little during the month of August. Eighty percent (80%) of Republicans consider Roberts' confirmation likely. That view is shared by 69% of Democrats and 65% of those not affiliated with either major party. Forty percent (40%) of Americans believe Roberts should be confirmed while 21% disagree. In a survey conducted immediately after his nomination, those numbers were 43% and 17% respectively. Republicans, by a 63% to 10% margin, believe Roberts should be approved. Unaffiliateds lean in that same direction by a 31% to 17% margin. Democrats were initially evenly divided on the Roberts nomination. Now, 35% of Democrats are opposed to his confirmation while 23% are in favor of it. Thirty-four percent (34%) of Americans have a favorable opinion of Judge Roberts. Twenty-two percent (21%) have an unfavorable opinion. Fifty-three percent (53%) say that they are following news stories on the Roberts confirmation somewhat or very closely. Demographic cross-tabs are available for Premium Members. Rasmussen Reports is an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information. Rasmussen Reports was the nation's most accurate polling firm during the Presidential election and the only one to project both Bush and Kerry's vote total within half a percentage point of the actual outcome. During Election 2004, RasmussenReports.com was also the top-ranked public opinion research site on the web. We had twice as many visitors as our nearest competitor and nearly as many as all competitors combined. Scott Rasmussen, president of Rasmussen Reports, has been an independent pollster for more than a decade.
The telephone survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted by Rasmussen Reports August 19-20, 2005. Thirty-seven percent (37%) of Respondents were Republicans and 37% were Democrats. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence (see Methodology) |
| ||||||||||||||||