Poll: Independents trending in new direction

Editor's note: This is another in a series of "WND/WENZEL POLLS" conducted exclusively for WND by the public-opinion research and media consulting company Wenzel Strategies.

A new poll shows that independents undoubtedly will determine the makeup – and therefore control – of the U.S. Senate in the 2012 election, and the bloc that gave significant support to Democrats in 2008 is moving in another direction.

According to the poll, Democrats and Republicans, by almost identical margins of about 95-5, support giving control to their own party. And while independents aren't unanimous, the support among GOP-leaning independents for GOP control is 91-9, while support among Democrat-leaning independents for Democrat control is only 76-24.

The results are from the newest WND/Wenzel Poll conducted by Wenzel Strategies. The telephone survey was conducted Oct. 22-25 and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

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Pollster Fritz Wenzel said the results indicate several underlying fundamentals, including the fact that "despite months of verbal attacks by President Obama, Republicans in Congress are holding up well."

"Asked which party should control Congress after the elections next year, 54 percent said Republicans, while 47 percent said Democrats," he noted.

The difference comes also entirely from the independents who are trending in a major way away from Obama.

"This seven-point lead is a strong indication of ongoing discontent with the party of the president, and the ineffectiveness of the president's campaign efforts to blame Republicans for the nation's ills," Wenzel said.

"This data is particularly bad news for Obama because it is a strong indicator that the American public has begun to tune him out. This development no doubt has its roots in the ongoing failure of the American economy and Obama's efforts to turn things around, but it may also reflect the rise of an immunity to Obama's oratorical skills," Wenzel said.

"He is so over-exposed in the media, and has been for so long, that voters have grown sick of him. The best thing he could do is stay out of the limelight for a while, but that is a near-impossibility at this point in his presidency. This is not a good situation for Democrats overall, because Obama is the face of the Democratic Party, and this survey clearly indicates the nation is sick of seeing his face," he said.

The poll also showed that by a significant 12-percent margin, voters want a consolidated government that will lead effectively, not the split government that has resulted in those unending White House attacks on House Republicans over the last two years.

"As if we needed more evidence of this, the WND/Wenzel poll also shows that the nation is tired of the partisan bickering and just want someone to lead in Washington," Wenzel said. "Asked if they would prefer one-party control of the federal government or a divided government, 49 percent said they would like one-party rule so problems could be addressed, and just 37 percent said they liked a politically divided federal government."

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While the question didn't allow respondents to specify which party they wanted, 57 percent of Democrats and 47 percent of Republicans are seeking a united front to confront America's problems. Twenty-seven percent of the Democrats and 41 percent of the Republicans seek a divided government.

In a question that easily could be a factor in the public's desire for Washington, some 55 percent of Americans said Obama is doing only a poor to fair job – with almost all of the major support for Obama coming from the Democrats. Only 2.9 percent of the Republicans, 7.4 percent of the independents who lean Democrat and 2.8 percent of the independents who lean Republican said Obama is doing an excellent job.

Even among Democrats, only 39 percent said Obama is doing excellent, with the larger part of the party slipping down to an evaluation of only "good." Among Democrats, more than 17 percent – about one in six – said Obama's work is only poor to fair.

In several key demographics, more than 68 percent of Hispanics think Obama's work is only poor to fair, and among those under age 30, the figure was 66 percent in the same categories.

Read the results of the poll questions:

The 2012 elections will determine which political party will control the United States Senate. Democrats have controlled the U.S. Senate since 2007. Which party would you most like to see win control of the Senate after next year's election?

Do you think it would be best to solve the country's problelms if one party controlled the White House, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, or would you prefer the current state of a divided federal government that exists right now?

Overall, do you think Barack Obama is doing an excellent job, a good job, only a fair job, or a poor job as president of the United States?