Poll Suggests Support for Tea Party Collapsing among Swing Voters

Jon Ponder | Mar. 3, 2011
Pensito Review

Four months after swing voters, in a fit of pique over the slow recovery from the Bush recession, sent nearly 90 Tea Partyists to Congress — and two months after Republicans took control of the House — a new Wall St. Journal/NBC poll finds concrete signs that the swingsters are experiencing buyers’ remorse.

The media often shorthands results of the 2010 midterms by saying that the tea party “won” the election, which implies that a majority of voters are tea party supporters. What actually happened in November is that roughly 95 percent of Democrats voted for Democratic candidates while about the same ratio of Republicans voted for GOPers. However, swing voters — who’d just voted resoundingly for the president and Democrats two years earlier — switched in 2010 and voted 60/40 in favor of GOP-tea party candidates.

The question now is will the swing voters swing again in 2012 and reelect Pres. Obama and possibly even hand Democrats the 25 seat shift they need to regain the majority in the House.

If this poll — which includes several dramatically high percentages in favor of Democratic positions — turns out to be a leading indicator, it’s just possible that they could.

(More here.)