RUSH: A lot of conflicting reports, folks, about Occupy Wall Street, Occupy DC, Occupy Oakland, all kinds of people are going to these rallies and interviewing them, talking to them, and everybody’s coming away with a different take. On one hand you have people saying, “Be very scared, be very worried. These people are really smart, and they’re really educated. They’re terribly wrong, but they’re very articulate, and they’re very serious, and do not laugh at them, because there’s nothing funny.” Other people go in there and talk to ’em and say they’re the biggest bunch of idiots they’ve ever encountered.

Now Doug Schoen is out. He’s got a poll. He is warning the White House, “Do not back these people.” And there are two places where Doug Schoen’s polling data is reported. One’s the Politico, the other is the Wall Street Journal. In fact, in the Wall Street Journal, Schoen wrote the piece himself. The Politico story first. “Pollster Douglas Schoen is out with a warning for President Barack Obama: Supporting Occupy Wall Street could cost you a second-term.” Doug Schoen, Democrat Pollster. He was a big Clinton pollster back in the nineties. He doesn’t enjoy the position in the party that he once had. I don’t know what happened. It’s more than the fact that he just shows up on Fox all the time now, but he’s clearly, in the last two years, been producing polling data that is not favorable and is a very much a warning to Obama and the Democrats.

He predicted the 2010 disaster in the midterm congressional elections. That’s why we listened to him. He gets together now and then with Pat Caddell, and he said, “‘President Obama and the Democratic leadership are making a critical error in embracing the Occupy Wall Street movement — and it may cost them the 2012 election,’ Schoen said in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. The movement, which has spread beyond New York City over the last month, ‘reflects values that are dangerously out of touch with the broad mass of the American people — and particularly with swing voters who are largely independent and have been trending away from the president since the debate over health-care reform,’ he wrote.
“In the op-ed, Schoen presents ‘findings’ collected by his polling firm — what he touts is probably ‘the first systematic random sample of Occupy Wall Street opinion.’ The numbers show that 52 percent of the Occupy protesters have ‘participated in a political movement before,’ 98 percent said they would ‘support civil disobedience to achieve their goals,’ while 31 percent said they would even ‘support violence to advance their agenda.’
In addition, Schoen said ‘an overwhelming majority’ of the protesters supported the president in 2008, but that now, only 44 percent of them approve of Obama and only 48 percent of them will vote for him again in 2012.”

And you want to hear something else? Most of them are employed. “Our research shows clearly that the movement doesnÂ’t represent unemployed America and is not ideologically diverse. Rather, it comprises an unrepresentative segment of the electorate that believes in radical redistribution of wealth, civil disobedience and, in some instances, violence. Half (52%) have participated in a political movement before, virtually all (98%) say they would support civil disobedience to achieve their goals, and nearly one-third (31%) would support violence to advance their agenda. The vast majority of demonstrators are actually employed, and the proportion of protesters unemployed (15%) is within single digits of the national unemployment rate (9.1%).”
So only 15% of these people are unemployed. They’re not marching for jobs. They’re protesting because they have to work. They’re protesting ’cause they don’t want to work. And you want to hear something hilarious? Thieves have now set upon these people. Thieves are stealing their cell phones and other electronic gadgets. And they’re ticked off about it. They can’t believe people would focus on them and steal their stuff. They don’t see that that’s exactly what they are all about. They want to steal everybody else’s stuff for them in the name of equality, and here come a bunch of thieves showing up, stealing their iPhones and stuff, and they’re ticked off.

Folks, this is why you need to pay attention to me talking about this because there’s so much BS out there about this group. I mean I have seen things that, “Gotta take ’em seriously. These are smart, these are articulate people, and they represent far more Americans than you would ever know.” Then you got Schoen with a completely opposite take on who they are and all these people reporting on who this group is, claim to be going down talking to them, some of them taking videos, with four or five people, and then making a judgment that these four or five are representative of the whole group. They’re idiots. I’ve watched some of the stuff. They’re idiots. You talk to ’em, this notion that they’re articulate and smart, give me a break. My dogs make more sense than these people do.

It’s clear that what you have here is your average minority malcontent bunch of spoiled brats who don’t want to work. They resent that they have to work. And when they get a little dose of their own medicine like their precious gadgets being stolen, they don’t know what to do about it. But they are employed, they’re genuinely unhappy, their lives are meaningless, they want to matter. I mean I know the profile. And so they join this group, and they try to get attention. One thing that continues to be reported but doesn’t seem to take hold is how small this whole thing is, is how small these individual groups of people are. Of course, the regime and the media have a vested interest in this group, making it look big and spontaneous, but it isn’t.

Here’s more from Doug Schoen. “An overwhelming majority of demonstrators supported Barack Obama in 2008. Now 51% disapprove,” which makes sense. If you listen to these people and you hear what they seriously claim to be upset about, why would they be supporting Obama? Now, they claim to be upset at the banks, but that’s not what they’re saying. The majority of them are upset at Obama, and they’re not gonna vote for him again, but the media and Obama are trying to tell us that these people don’t like the banks. Now, they’ve got no love for the banks, but they’re not singularly focused against the banks. Only 48% say they will vote to reelect Obama in 2012. Twenty-five percent will not. Fewer than one in three — this is 32% — call themselves Democrats, roughly the same proportion, 33%, say that they aren’t represented by any political party.

This is Doug Schoen writing in the Wall Street Journal, “Thus Occupy Wall Street is a group of engaged progressives who are disillusioned with the capitalist system and have a distinct activist orientation. Among the general public, by contrast, 41% of Americans self-identify as conservative, 36% as moderate, and only 21% as liberal. That’s why the Obama-Pelosi embrace of the movement could prove catastrophic for their party.”
Because they’re a minority. And I keep trying to drum this into people’s heads as a means of keeping everybody psychologically up. We are not the minority in either numbers or thinking in this country. The left is. But the assault on us and what we believe and what we think is everywhere, and the amount of negativity that is out there, if you don’t know how to avoid it, it can really affect you, ’cause it’s everywhere, including on our side. Defeatism, agony, despair. It’s all over the place. You have to know how to rise above it or have boundaries so all that bounces off you and that’s what I do.

“Rather than embracing huge new spending programs and tax increases, plus increasingly radical and potentially violent activists, the Democrats should instead build a bridge to the much more numerous independents and moderates in the center by opposing bailouts and broad-based tax increases.” And instead the Democrats are throwing in with this bunch, which is perfect for us. They’re throwing in with this bunch of Looney Tunes. They’re adopting ’em. “Put simply, Democrats need to say they are with voters in the middle who want cooperation, conciliation and lower taxes. And they should work particularly hard to contrast their rhetoric with the extremes advocated by the Occupy Wall Street crowd.” Schoen served as a pollster for President Bill Clinton, is author of “Hopelessly Divided: The New Crisis in American Politics and What It Means for 2012 and Beyond.” That’s the title of the book. They needed two covers in order to put the title on it. I’ve never seen a longer title for a book.

USA Today: “Washington to Blame More Than Wall Street for Economy.” This is a poll of most Americans, not just of the Wall Street crowd. Basically it is this: USA Today/Gallup poll went out and they talked to regular people, and the American people blame Washington more than Wall Street 64-30%. That’s what it is. And the narrative offered by Obama on who’s responsible for a message coming up short, Obama is not persuading people, and the Occupy Wall Street crowd not persuading people that Wall Street’s the problem. Sixty-four to 30%, USA Today/Gallup. Somebody’s gonna get canned for even conducting this poll. Then somebody’s gonna get canned for reporting the poll. Then somebody’s gonna get canned for publishing the poll. Sixty-four to 30% of the American people blame Washington more than Wall Street for our economic problems and malaise.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: You know, I’d say to Doug Schoen, “Doug, nice try. It’s a little late to tell Obama not to embrace the protesters. He organized and hired ’em.” And the protesters think he’s gonna come down and say hi to ’em. I mean he’s left the door open to going down there and encouraging them. Clearly this is an Astroturf job run by the Astroturf creator and inventor David Axelrod, and it can only work with cooperation from the State-Controlled Media, because on the ground, the reality in Virginia, AP, State-Controlled AP: “Don’t look for Democrats in fiercely contested legislative elections to join President Barack Obama as he brings his American Jobs Act bus tour to three Virginia cities. For that matter, don’t expect to see Tim Kaine, the former Democratic National Committee chairman and past Virginia governor, joining his old ally either.

“But one statewide elected official will join Obama — Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell, a GOP vice presidential prospect and a sharp, frequent critic of the Obama White House.
McDonnell announced he would appear with the president at a Wednesday stop in Hampton at a military base for an event advocating expanded employment opportunities for veterans. Republicans say Democrats were so afraid to embrace the unpopular president that Obama changed his Virginia itinerary to avoid stops near targeted Democrats.” Obama is staying away from Democrats running for reelection in Virginia who are in toss-ups because he’s a drag. He’s an obstacle.

Wolf Blitzer, CNN: “There are some numbers in our new CNN-ORC International poll that should seriously worry President Obama and the Democrats. Republicans are right now a lot more enthusiastic about voting in the next election than Democrats. Some 64% of Republicans say they are extremely or very enthusiastic compared to only 43% of Democrats. … But for the president, there may be an even more alarming number. Among all voters, 59% think that President ObamaÂ’s policies will fail compared to only 36% who say they will succeed.”

And Wolf Blitzer writing at CNN.com says, “There is still plenty of time for the president and the Democrats to turn this around.” Now, I’m told that we should not pay much attention to this, though, folks, this voter enthusiasm business, that the harbinger for all of this is the school board elections in Wake County, North Carolina, where the Democrats shellacked the Republicans. The Democrats had three times the margin of victory in early voting. The Democrats got people out like crazy. The Republicans sat home. This is the Wake County school board elections, and I’m told that’s more indicative of the coming election in 2012 than what CNN’s poll indicates. So voter enthusiasm in a poll, yeah, but in the Wake County, North Carolina, school board race, the Democrats took it all. It may be over, folks.