Obama Unpopular In Arkansas, But What About His ‘buffett Rule’?

Sometimes a completely unscientific poll starts to make you wonder. 

This week, Congressman Mike Ross held a "telephone townhall" with roughly 6,800 people in the 4th Congressional District.  A telephone townhall is when an automated system instantly contacts thousands of phone numbers and invites the people to join in a live conference call with the call’s organizer which is usually an elected official.  Participants listen to the elected official’s spiel and have an opportunity to ask a question if they’re selected by the screeners.  Finally, the organizer of the call conducts various polls to gauge the participants’ feelings on certain issues. 

You can listen to a recording of the Ross townhall at this link.

This is what piqued my interest.  Here are two questions Mike Ross "polled" during the call:

1.  As part of his plan to reduce the deficit, the President has proposed the “Buffett Rule” – which says households making over $1 million a year should pay at least the same share in taxes that middle-class families pay – never less than middle class families pay.  This would lead to increased taxes for households that make over $1 million per year.  Do you agree with the “Buffett Rule”? 

Yes – 65%
No – 17%
Undecided – 18%

2.  Recently, the President introduced a jobs bill that cuts the payroll tax in half, extends unemployment benefits, builds and repairs roads and bridges, invests in making schools more energy efficient, and many other provisions.  The President estimates his bill will cost about $400 billion, but says it will be fully paid for.  Do you support the President’s jobs bill? 

Yes – 51%
No – 30%
Undecided – 19%

First, let me emphasize the completely unscientific nature of these polls.  Roughly 500 people responded to these two questions, but there’s no data on who these random people were – could be 500 of President Obama’s cousins who just happen to live in South Arkansas. 

Secondly, before some Republican Party folks go off half-cocked, I’m not suggesting that President Obama has even a remote chance of carrying Arkansas in 2012.  Check out our latest Talk Business poll for more information on that front.

What struck me is the depth of support for Obama’s "Buffett Rule" among the townhall participants.  The majority also supported his jobs bill – at least how it was explained in the poll question. 

Two things could be at play here with these two questions: 1) Obama finally has a forceful message that’s easy to explain and puts people on one side of the fence or the other. 2) Arkansas is a poor state and only 1.5% of Arkansas families have a household income of $200,000 or more, thus making people less adverse to making others pay their fair share.

While the aforementioned polls are wholly unscientific, a new Gallup Poll shows significant support for the "Buffett Rule" and Obama’s Jobs Plan on the national level.

Barack Obama is not popular in Arkansas, but how about his "Buffett Rule" and his jobs bill? Hopefully someone will soon conduct a real poll to test these two concepts.