RUSH: Rasmussen has released a poll. It’s interesting. If we are to believe this, there can be no conclusion other than we are a conservative country. ”Progressive’ is becoming more of a dirty word, but all political labels — except ‘being like Ronald Reagan’ — are falling into disfavor with many US voters, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. ‘Liberal’ is still the worst and remains the only political description that is viewed more negatively than positively. Being like Reagan is still the most positive thing you can say about a candidate. Just 15% of voters say they view the description of a candidate as politically liberal as positive, down four points from last November. Forty-one percent (41%) see it as a negative description, up five points form the earlier survey, while 42% say it’s somewhere in between.
‘Aware of their low ideological ratings, political liberals have shifted in recent times to calling themselves progressives, but that name, too, has begun to lose its luster. Thirty-two percent (32%) now consider it a positive to describe a candidate as politically progressive, but that’s down from 40% just after the last election. Twenty-seven percent (27%) see it as negative label, up from 16%. … But ‘conservative’ also has lost ground. In November, 37% said they had a positive opinion of a candidate described as politically conservative, but only 32% feel that way now. … Even ‘moderate’ is a bit more in disfavor these days. Thirty-five percent (35%) say moderate is a positive political description, down from 40%.’ But ‘liberal’ is the least positive description. And that is why we need to never stop calling these people liberals. That’s who they are.
‘Being ‘like Ronald Reagan’ is the one political description that hasn’t changed, even though some in his own party have suggested that Republican candidates should distance themselves from the late president. In November, 43% had a positive opinion of a candidate compared to Reagan, and 41% still feel that way now. Twenty-five percent (25%) view it as a negative political description, compared to 26% in the previous survey. Thirty-one percent (31%) say being like Reagan is somewhere in between a positive and a negative. In a Wall Street Journal column last fall, Scott Rasmussen noted that President Obama won the White House by campaigning like Ronald Reagan. The downturn in the views of all other ideological labels is notable since the November findings were roughly the same as those in July 2007 after a Democratic presidential debate in which Hillary Clinton insisted she would rather be called a progressive than a liberal.’ Remember, liberals can never be honest with you about who they are and what they want to do. And that speech to the school kids that Obama gave, what day was that, Tuesday? The speech that Obama gave to the school kids, that was a Reagan conservative speech and that’s why I was so outraged by it because nobody believes he means it.