It’s widely assumed that if no agreement is reached in the fiscal cliff negotiations, many more voters will blame congressional Republicans than blame Barack Obama and congressional Democrats. That assumption has been supported by some polling. But this week’s NBC/Wall Street Journal poll has a question that casts some doubt on this. The question reads: “And, if there is no compromise on the fiscal cliff and the automatic spending cuts and tax increases go into effect, who do you think will be to blame for this–President Obama and the Democrats in Congress, the Republicans in Congress, or do you think they will be equally to blame?” The result: 19% say Obama and the Democrats would be more to blame, 24% say the Republicans would be more to blame and 56% say they would be equally to blame. A November 2012 survey conducted for CNBC by the same pollsters, Democrat Peter Hart (for whom I worked between 1974 and 1981) and Republican Bill McInturff, had an even closer result, with Republicans found more to blame than Democrats by a margin of 23% to 21%.
