Americans favor immigration executive action, 67-28

[Adam Griffin]

Not sure about the track record of the pollster, but here are the results:

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Many individual elements of the executive action are very popular with voters:

o Allow undocumented immigrants who are parents of children or young adults living legally in the United States to stay in the United States without being deported (66% favorable, 28% unfavorable)

o Expand the DACA program that provides temporary legal status and work permits to undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children (63% favorable, 27% unfavorable)

o Provide temporary work permits to qualifying immigrants (76% favorable, 21% unfavorable)

o Shift more security resources to the Mexican border (79% favorable, 16% unfavorable)[/quote]

Voters also strongly reject Republican attempts to block the measure:

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Voters strongly reject aggressive strategies being considered by Republicans to block executive action, including a government shutdown and impeachment. By a 48-point margin (72% oppose, 24% favor) voters oppose a strategy of Republicans shutting down the government until the president agrees to end his executive action. While Tea party Republicans favor a shutdown strategy by 61% to 36%, Republicans who do not identify with the Tea Party oppose a shutdown by 62% to 32%. And by a 31-point margin, voters oppose impeaching the president and removing him from office in response to this executive action (63% oppose, 32% favor).
[/quote]

[Adam Griffin]

A new Rasmussen Poll shows a staggering majority against this action.

As already stated, that's not surprising at all. The results of polls on this would be extremely skewed based on question wording.

Exactly:

"2* According to news reports, President Obama is considering granting amnesty to several million illegal immigrants without the approval of Congress. Do you favor or oppose the president granting such an amnesty?"

It might as well be "Do you oppose or oppose Obummer's freedom-crushing decision to possibly provide billions of people with special "immigrant welfare" for life?".

[Adam Griffin]

Doesn't that bug you at all, that there is a chance of a massive white backlash beyond 1994, 2010 and 2014? What if the Democratic nominee ended up with only 20% of the white vote in 2016? That was my question, you aren't bothered by that?

Only if Republicans succeed at making the entire nation's economic situation mirror that of the caste-based South - and even then, you'd need a generation or two for the bitter class and racial resentments to fully propagate - would that ever even be possible. I hate to break things down into racial, cultural and stereotypical divisions, but whites as a bloc have less in common with one another than any other racial voting bloc in the country, so achieving a unified message based solely on race (which is what it'd have to be) would never be that effective. Most whites who are voting Democratic at this point are probably doing it impulsively against the very strategy and tactics you think would pull them on in.

Only in four states - LA, MS, AL & GA - was white support for Democrats at or below 20% in 2012. Hell, in most contests for Senate and Governor in these same states in 2014, white support actually rebounded from that (since there were no blacks running for Senate/Governor in these races) and were on par or above 2010 levels.

[Adam Griffin]

OK, fine. But what about CNN's poll ? Their question wording is correct and they show even worse numbers for Obama than Quinnipiac ...

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http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2014/images/11/26/cnnorc-immigration-poll112614.pdf

That's still a loaded question to a degree. For one, it uses buzz-words like "executive orders" and "without any action by Congress", which implies that he is somehow breaking the law or engaging in shady behavior. Secondly, it doesn't actually detail what he is doing; when people are told what the plan entails, they tend to favor it. While there was a vague question (below) that was asked right before this one, it didn't do the policy justice. Plus, I have little faith in most who are surveyed to give consistent answers. Their own poll shows this right above/below that question:

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A statistical tie with no majority when given a vague description of what is actually being done.

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72% of the country approves of what he is doing, with a chunk of them wishing he'd do even more. The American public likes what is being done, but not how it is being done. This isn't anything new. At the end of the day, the policy will be what matters in terms of persuasion and sentiment - not the process.