Poll: More Republicans view Obama, Democrats as imminent threat than Russia's Putin

In a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, 34 percent of Republicans called President Obama an imminent threat to the United States, versus 25 percent who ranked Russian President Vladimir Putin and 23 percent who viewed Syrian President Bashar al-Assed as that dangerous. The online survey, conducted March 16-24, asked the 1,083 Democrats and 1,059 Republicans to assign a number to countries, groups, and individuals, with 1 being no threat and 5 being an imminent threat.

Obama wasn't the only domestic threat: 27 percent of Republicans gave 5 scores to Democrats, and 22 percent of Democrats similarly ranked the GOP as an imminent threat. "There tends to be a lot of demonizing of the person who is in the office," sociologist Barry Glassner tells Reuters. "The TV media here, and American politics, very much trade on fears."

There were some bipartisan fears, too: 58 percent of all respondents ranked Islamic State an imminent threat and 43 percent said the same of al Qaeda; Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was viewed as a top threat by only 27 percent of respondents. Find more results at Reuters.

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