60% of Americans Consider Themselves Conservative

In the age of the Obamessiah the media would have us believe that all but a small, nutty handful of Americans are moderates or liberals. Not so says the bipartisan Battleground Poll:

The Battleground Poll, the most respected and thorough of all public opinion polls, released its latest results on August 20th. Although many people read this poll for the data on voter preference in upcoming elections, for voter opinions about the two major political parties, for what things matter most to voters, I always zip past this data in the first fifteen pages of poll results and go straight to Question D3, which very quietly and totally ignored proclaims the biggest missing story in American politics and which is the only story, in the long run, that really matters.

[...]

The Battleground Poll is different. It is bipartisan. A Republican polling organization, the Terrance Group, and a Democrat polling organization, Lake Research Partners, collaborate in picking the questions, selecting the sample population, conducting the surveys, and analyzing the results. The Battleground Poll website, along with the raw data, is “Republican Strategic Analysis” and “Democratic Strategic Analysis.” There are few polls that are bipartisan. No other polling organization asks the same questions year after year, none that reveal the internals of their poll results so completely, and none ask anything like Question D3 in every survey. What is Question D3 and what were the results to Question D3 in the August 20, 2008 Battleground Poll? It is this:

“When thinking about politics and government, do you consider yourself to be…

Very conservative

Somewhat conservative

MODERATE

Somewhat liberal

Very liberal

UNSURE/REFUSED”

In August 2008, Americans answered that question this way: (1) 20% of Americans considered themselves to be very conservative; (2) 40% of Americans considered themselves to be somewhat conservative; (3) 2% of Americans considered themselves to be moderate; (4) 27% of Americans considered themselves to be somewhat liberal; (5) 9% of Americans considered themselves to be very liberal; and (6) 3% of Americans did not know or refused to answer.

With only 38% of Americans describing themselves as moderate or liberal, how does the way-left Obamessiah even have a chance? Because conservatives are mad at the GOP because of its unconservative governance and unenthused about supporting part-time conservative McCain. A truly conservative candidate could have motivated those self-described conservative voters and won this thing in a walk.

For those that might doubt this particular polling group, they probably had the best record of accuracy during the 2000 and 2004 election. Every day during both election cycles one of the first things I looked at every morning during the latter days of the campaign was the Battleground Poll. It was either elation or depression depending on how the Battleground numbers had moved that day.