The
Wall Street Journal's John Fund writes about "America's Insurgent Pollster," Scott Rasmussen.
Key points:
Rasmussen says "that only 23 percent of the people in this country believe today's federal government has the consent of the governed.
"Americans don't want to be governed from the left or the right," Scott Rasmussen tells the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conference of 1,500 conservative and moderate legislators. "They want, like the Founding Fathers, to largely govern themselves with Washington in a supporting — but not dominant — role. The tea party movement is today's updated expression of that sentiment."
Mr. Rasmussen tells the crowd gathered around him after his speech that the political and media elites have misread the tea party. He believes this strongly enough that he's teamed up with Doug Schoen — a pollster for both President Bill Clinton and New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg — to publish a new book that will seek to explain the movement's significance. "Mad as Hell" will be out early next month.
More:
- The major division in this country is no longer between parties but between political elites and the people," Mr. Rasmussen says.
- "The week [Obama's stimulus bill] it passed, our poll found 62 percent of voters wanted more tax cuts and less government spending in the stimulus," he says. "We shouldn't be surprised people now think the stimulus has failed."
- "This will be the third straight election in which people vote against the party in power," he says. "The GOP will benefit from that this year, but 75 percent of Republicans say their representatives in Congress are out of touch with the party base. Should they win big this November, they will have to move quickly to prove they've learned lessons from the Bush years."
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