Pew Poll: Fiscal Cliff Talks More Important Than Petraeus Affair

More Americans watched closely the debate over the so-called fiscal cliff last week than investigation into the Libya embassy attack, renewed violence in the Middle East or the FBI investigation that led David Petraeus to resign as CIA Director over an extramarital affair.

The survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press of 1,002 adults conducted Nov. 15-18 found that as many Republicans (36 percent) as Democrats (35 percent) said they very closely followed the debate over sequestration, which takes effect on Jan. 2.

Republicans are about as interested as Democrats in the Petraeus investigation, 28 to 21 percent, Pew found.

But Republicans were far more interested in the investigation into the Sept. 11 attack that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans than Democrats or independents, 42 to 21 to 22 percent, respectively, the Pew survey found.

Thirty percent of Americans told Pew that the news of the Petraeus affair was of great importance to the nation, while 32 percent said that it was either of some importance or of very little or no importance.

Republicans, however, were far more likely to said that the Petraeus situation was of great importance, 43 to 27 percent, Pew found.