Last Friday, Gallup released a poll showing the country almost evenly divided on Obama’s gay marriage endorsement, but 26% of Americans said Obama’s move made them more likely to vote against him while 13% said it made them more likely to vote for him. By a 12-point margin, independents said they were more likely to vote against Obama because of his endorsement of gay marriage.
Two new polls on Obama’s endorsement of gay marriage find similar results. ABC/Washingon Post:
Seventy percent of Democrats view Obama’s declaration favorably; 76 percent of Republicans respond negatively. But swing-voting independents tell a more mixed story: On one hand, they tilt slightly more favorably than unfavorably overall, 49-43 percent. On the other, somewhat more independents respond strongly negatively, 35 percent, than strongly positively, 26 percent – and strong sentiment can better predict voter turnout and vote preferences.
Asked if they had to decide if same-sex marriage should be legal, 51 percent said no, including 81 percent of Republicans, 25 percent of Democrats and 54 percent of independents. Forty-two percent said yes, including 13 percent of Republicans, 63 percent of Democrats and 43 percent of independents.
Perhaps an even more damaging number from the CBS/New York Times poll is that 67 percent of voters, including 70 percent of independents, think Obama endorsed gay marriage because of politics, while only “24 percent overall said he made the decision because he thought it was the right thing to do.”
As Politico reported last week:
