Obama Has A Minus 2 Approval for the Third Day - I Don't Get It (CNN, polls)
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Since Obama took office, I have been monitoring Rasmussen's Tracking Poll. Rasmussen (along with Pew) is the pollster that best predicted the 2008 Presidential election results so I decided not to go fishing for the polls that told me what I wanted to hear - I'd pick one, Rasmussen, and stick with it. Rassmussen subtracts Obama's Strongly Disapprove from Strongly Approve to come up with his approval rating.
When Obama was spending like a madman, signing really outrageous spending/bailout bills and making speeches to indicate he wants to control just about everything and everybody, he enjoyed pretty consistent positive ratings, typically from Plus 2 to, if I remember correctly, Plus 11. Nobody batted an eyelash. I was appalled and I didn't get it. I didn't understand why someone who was spending our money like crazy and saying he wanted to control every aspect of our personal life was being received so favorably. He is what he is but I was thinking "What's wrong with you people?" But I sucked it up. Maybe I'm just getting old. It wasn't as if the other party looked golden, if you know what I mean.
But for the last few days Obama has, for the first time, dipped into the negative approval numbers. Did I miss something he's done recently that was extra outrageous that would turn public opinion against him? What was the thing that turned his favorable ratings in the opposite direction? Was it something the left didn't like? I haven't seen him actually change, it just seems public perception of him is changing? What did I miss last week? Is there one issue that has captured people's attention recently or is it just an accumulation of things starting to impact his approval?
Honestly, I just think Obama is being Obama. It's the public that has me baffled.
Summer vacation happened!
The surge in support he received prior to the election was due to a huge number of young and first-time voters looking for "change". Now that school is out, these same first-time voters are beginning to examine what "change" entails. For them, "change" means getting stuck with trillions and trillions in new debt they will be forced to repay. They are looking for summer jobs expecting the "stimulus package" to be working to ease unemployment, but the unemployment rate has increased significantly since their $2,700 share of the "stimulus package" was borrowed on their behalf. Finally, the financial pain that is required to snap complacent, politically disinterested taxpayers is emerging from the broken promises, half-truths and outright deception that becomes more and more clear as each day goes by.
BO has no clue what he's doing. He's a Marxist who got elected by pretending to not be a Marxist. Nationalizing failing businesses artificially inflates the price of land, labor and capital. This practice destroys the natural ability of a capitalist system to correct itself. But the democrats are on a short chain. The union bosses will not tolerate a free labor market that benefits all. Cap and trade along with per worker fines for not following government mandated health insurance guidelines will continue to destroy jobs. In fact, the meddling in the economy of this current administration that is being viewed more and more as a self-serving power grab by opportunistic politicians, is the source of growing resentment. That Pelosi, Reed and BO have been given everything they wanted has destroyed the one hope they had for surviving the next election. They cannot blame anyone else for their failures. Just like in Carter's days, they will reap what they have sown.
Finding approval by subtracting Strongly Disapprove from Strongly Approve is an awfully disingenuous approach to such a thing. I'd be leery of putting much faith in it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jfields
Obama is center-left, but I'd say he's more in the center than the left.
Whatever the man's personal politics, things certainly continue to feel extremely right-wing. It's absolutely pathetic that he's argued in favour of Defense of Marriage, that he's promised to block release of prisoner abuse photos, that he's continuing drone attacks in Pakistan. I read articles like this: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/op...bert.html?_r=1 and I'm reminded just how much in common the Obama administration has with Bush's. Sorry for straying off-topic.
He started out with 68% job approval and 12% disapproval. Now that is 62%/31%.
Two things happened. His approval dropped 6% and his disapproval increased 19%.
That means he lost 25% of his support. That's significant since he won by a 7.2% margin.
Rasmussen scores it as a 30% drop. The truth may be somewhere between those two numbers. The important thing to note here is that support for this uniquely unqualified individual is dropping at a startling rate.
He started out with 68% job approval and 12% disapproval. Now that is 62%/31%.
Two things happened. His approval dropped 6% and his disapproval increased 19%.
That means he lost 25% of his support. That's significant since he won by a 7.2% margin.
Rasmussen scores it as a 31% drop. The truth may be somewhere between those two numbers. The important thing to note here is that support for this uniquely unqualified individual is dropping at a startling rate.
LOL..whatever..Have fun juggling numbers until they make you feel good. 62% of Americans approve of him, PERIOD. At 62% approval, he's eight points higher than his election percentage of 54%.
Well, what about gallup's 62%..You've ignored that one. This is the only number I need to see. This supposed "0" approval that Rasmussen pumps to its rabid followers is foolishness.
The number really isn't the point. What is at issue here is the change since taking office. Rasmussen shows a 30% drop in overall support while Gallup shows a 25% drop, but the point is that as Americans get to see him in action they do not like what they see. In fact, BO lost more support in his first 30 days than any other president since polling began.
LOL..whatever..Have fun juggling numbers until they make you feel good. 62% of Americans approve of him, PERIOD. At 62% approval, he's eight points higher than his election percentage of 54%.
If we're still using he Gallup polls, his approval number at the beginning of his administration appears to have been 69%.
The number really isn't the point. What is at issue here is the change since taking office. Rasmussen shows a 30% drop in overall support while Gallup shows a 25% drop, but the point is that as Americans get to see him in action they do not like what they see. In fact, BO lost more support in his first 30 days than any other president since polling began.
Quote:
Originally Posted by momonkey
If we're still using he Gallup polls, his approval number at the beginning of his administration appears to have been 69%.
I don't think you're going to find a poll more liberal friendly than Gallup and even Gallup shows him declining since the inauguration.
Still juggling? They went to 58 but they are 62 today. Why are you posting old poll numbers? Why are you still posting Rasmussen numbers? They are clearly always an outlier. I'll indulge you quickly. Because one doesn't outwardly disapprove of you on a poll doesn't mean they support you. Those numbers you tout are not viable. If someone doesn't answer, they don't go into the approval column. Becuase some on the fence, most likely conservatives decided to join the disapprove column doesn't mean less people approve. If it did, his drop in approval would've matched his rise in disapproval. They don't. Not even close.The only number that matters is the total percentage of Americans that approve. NO MATTER WHAT RASMUSSEN PIMPS YOU INTO THINKING.
WHo cares what polls say? Here is how I determine what the public is thinking - I do my own polls. I have talked to three very enthusiastic Obama supporters in the last week who have all said "I wish I had never voted for Obama." Why? Because they are realizing now that Obama's legislative agenda is gonna cost us all a LOT of money. And the thing I have heard repeated over and over is - "He said the tax increases were not gonna hit people making under $250,000." The T&C legislation is gonna cost us all on many levels . . . as will the healthcare reform legislation (as now written) . . . and this is starting to look like fiscal irresponsibility to many people who once supported Obama.
So regardless of what the polls out there say . . . when people who argued w/ me til they were blue in the face that "Obama had the answers" are now saying they don't like the way things are going . . . that tells me all I need to know.
yes polls can be a mystery. the hard right posts are however, consistent, they have b4 during and after predicted that defeat of obama was imminent and that victory was at hand for GOP.
yes polls can be a mystery. the hard right posts are however, consistent, they have b4 during and after predicted that defeat of obama was imminent and that victory was at hand for GOP.
Well, it was obvious to all my GOP friends that there was no way a GOP candidate could win this last election. The country was just fed up w/ GWB's policies. McCain was only a "fair" candidate (altho he is a good man - just seemed tired and old and lacking fresh ideas). Then you add Palin to that mix, and many people felt the GOP had handed them a weak ticket. I am surrounded by Republicans and not one person I knew said he/she felt McCain would win this election. It is what it is. Until the GOP gets some real leadership and stops the in-fighting . . . candidates are gonna have a helluva time getting elected.
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