87% Think Media More Interested in Candidate Controversy Than in the Issues
Most recently, it’s been anti-Obama comments by aging rock star Ted Nugent and anti-Romney remarks by an Obama political adviser on women’s issues, but candidates are routinely bombarded with media questions when someone who supports them steps out of line. However, voters overwhelmingly see those stories as media hype and believe it’s the candidate that really counts.
Seventy-nine percent (79%) of Likely U.S. Voters think in terms of how they will vote that what a candidate says is more important than what their supporters say. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 11% put more emphasis on what a candidate’s supporters say. Ten percent (10%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on April 22-23, 2012 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.