48% Say Obama’s Views Are Extreme; 51% Say Hillary Is Mainstream

48% Say Obama’s Views Are Extreme; 51% Say Hillary Is Mainstream

Forty-eight percent (48%) of U.S. voters now regard President Obama’s political views as extreme. Forty-two percent (42%) place his views in the mainstream, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

By comparison, 51% see the views of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as mainstream. Thirty-five percent (35%) think Clinton’s views are extreme. Fourteen percent (14%) are undecided.

Among five top contenders for the White House in 2012, only former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is viewed as more extreme than the president. Just 38% say Palin’s views are mainstream, while 55% regard them as extreme.

Mitt Romney, the ex-Massachusetts governor who unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, is considered mainstream by 45% and extreme by 33%. Twenty-two percent (22%), however, are not sure about his views.

Forty-four percent (44%) say the views of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, another unsuccessful 2008 GOP hopeful, are in the mainstream. Thirty-eight percent (38%) think Huckabee is extreme, and another 18% are not sure.

It’s important to note that the questions did not define “mainstream” or “extreme.”

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters U.S. Voters was conducted on August 21-22, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Fifty-seven percent (57%) of voters now believe the Democratic congressional agenda is extreme. A plurality (45%) view the GOP agenda as mainstream.

Voters have consistently expressed unhappiness over a number of the president’s initiatives including the national health care bill and the bailouts of the auto and financial industries. The economy continues to remain sluggish despite a number of spending measures including last year’s $787-billion economic stimulus plan, and voters now blame Obama’s policies as much as those of President George W. Bush for the bad economy.

Predictably, most Republicans view Obama’s views as extreme, while a sizable majority of Democrats say they are mainstream. But most voters not affiliated with either party also describe the president’s views as extreme by a 54% to 30% margin.

Eighty-one percent (81%) of liberals say Obama’s in the mainstream. Seventy-five percent (75%) of conservatives regard him as extreme.

But then most voters in the country now believe the president and the average Democrat in Congress are more liberal, politically speaking, than they are.

Seventy-three percent (73%) of Democrats think Clinton’s views are mainstream, while 54% of GOP voters say they are extreme. Unaffiliateds are evenly divided on the question.

But a majority (58%) of unaffiliated voters think Palin’s views are extreme, an opinion shared by most Democrats. Sixty-eight percent (68%) of Republicans say the ex-governor’s views are mainstream.

Last November, 59% of Republican voters said Palin shares the values of most GOP voters throughout the nation.

In June, voters said Clinton is more qualified to be president than Obama, but most believe that both Democrats are more fit for the White House than three top Republicans interested in the job, Palin, Romney and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

With midterm elections less than three months away, nearly two-out-of-three voters (65%) remain at least somewhat angry at the current policies of the federal government, including 40% who are Very Angry.

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