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Monday, August 03, 2009

Those damned ratings

What's Mallard raving about today?

President Obama

After I started this blog President Bush's approval rating dropped by 20 points, from an already low 45% in August 2006.

And somehow this is the first time the topic of approval rating has ever come up.

Besides, whatever Obama's approval rating, it's still 30 points higher than the Republican Party.

19 comments:

Factinista said...

If changes in approval rating are the sole indicator of a president's quality, then here's some food for thought. In November 1986, thanks to Iran-Contra, Ronald Reagan's approval slipped 21 points in the span of a month, the sharpest drop in history. So by Mallard's logic, Reagan was the worst president ever.

Iron Dragon said...

One interesting factor here is that Obama also betrayed a lot of people in his political base. He came out against gay marriage, going so far as to compare it to incest or raping children in a speech. Add in that he hasn't done much on the don't ask don't tell policy and has compromised so heavily on universal coverage that it's basically the current system with a fresh coat of paint and it isn't a surprise that his polls slipped.

An important point is that when people follow you based on ideas you put out and you betray them harshly, they stop approving of you.

GeoX, one of the GeoX boys. said...

Also: BIRSERTIFIKIT! SOSHALIZM! MURDERING OLD PEOPLE! AND SO ON! I'm just saying. Yeah, you can turn the easily-confused against Obama with such mantras, but it's a bit rich to then turn around and claim that this says anything about the President, rather than about your long-honed facility at spewing bullshit.

Michael Foley said...

YES! No more Michael Jackson!!!

By the way, Obama polls at 56% approval, versus 34% for the GOP.

rewinn said...

Obama should simply hire prostitutes to print his press releases and call it "news".

It worked for W, it'll work for O!

exanonymous said...

Nice "etc." there.

I do believe in citing sources that is not allowed. But it's par for course for the neocon idea of honesty and integrity in research.

rewinn said...

P.S. is it not worth noting that the more "moderate" Obama tries to be, the less popular he becomes?

Tinkley and his ilk celebrate any slight fall in Obama's popularity but lack the honesty to admit that it's because America REJECTED the corporatists and the Republicans in November, and reject them all the more now.

Placating them is not what our great nation wants or needs.

NLC said...

We need a name for this practice. I.e. keep repeating it often enough, on as many sources as possible, and then it becomes "true".

I.e. "The dramatic drop in Obama's ratings". Yes, sure they've dropped. But "dramatically"? What's that supposed to mean. (OK, to be clear, we know what's it's supposed to mean in Tinsley World, but what does it mean in reality?)

There's a whole slew of this sort of thing going on in the health care debate:

1] O'Reilly/Tinsley/etc get their talking point and repeat the "fact" (e.g. "The government will choose your Doctor for you".)
2] After sufficient number of repeats (from apparently "independent" sources) folks repeat back to Fox's polsters.
3] O'Reilly/Tinsley/etc now report "Significant increases in the number of people who believe the Government will choose your Doctor for you."

Q.E.D.: It _must_ be true.

Ducky is Right said...

Bush had the lowest approval ratings in recorded history. And it wasn't just a reaction dip to bad news; I don't think they ever went above 40% since 2005. There were points where he passed Nixon circa Nixon's resignation.
Obama goes from 65% to 60% and suddenly it's all, 'ha-ha-ha what a fail presidency.'
There's no arguing with such reckless stupidity.

CW in LA said...

By the same token, whenever Bush's favorability rating would go up, say from 26 to 28%, there'd be a lot talk about his making a "comeback" in the polls.

I agree, though, that Obama can only help himself by being much more assertive on behalf of the ideals and constuencies that got him where he is now.

Unknown said...

I, for one, still heartily approve of the female reproductive system. Though I'm not sure why it's talking or wearing a tie.

Anonymous said...

Confidence in U.S. Health Care System Has Grown in Recent Months. And this is news? It does not matter, Obama wants government run health care and he has the votes.

Hibryd said...

"I, for one, still heartily approve of the female reproductive system. Though I'm not sure why it's talking or wearing a tie."

Ha!

I was disappointed to see the strip return to business as usual. I was hoping that, after weeks of bashing people who were STUPID enough to think that insulting Michael Jackson was racist, Mallard would explain to us why insulting Palin is TOTALLY sexist.

CW in LA said...

Confidence in U.S. Health Care System Has Grown in Recent Months.

Yeah, it's gone from a 35% positive rating by the public to a whopping 48% rating - still a lower approval rating than the president's, incidentally. And this is in the wake of a massive propaganda onslaught by the forces of the status quo. Are reich-wingers even capable of trying to be honest with people? I'm guessing not.

Not THAT Anonymous said...

Confidence in U.S. Health Care System Has Grown in Recent Months

60% Of Alabamians Believe In Alien Abduction Involving Anal Probes

"G-Force" Tops Box-Office

All of the above headlines are of equal value in terms of proving something. In fact, they pretty much indicate the same thing.

exanonymous said...

Wow, insurance companies "improved" because a gov't option is being worked on?

If that's what the threat of a gov't run alternative can do, imagine what the actual existence of the gov't option would do.

For one thing, any improvements on the part of companies would have to be long term to continue to attract buyers.

Michael Foley said...

NLC: The Daily Show described that exact scenario you described, and dubbed it the "Crank Cycle" in tonight's show!

David in NYC said...

Not THAT Anonymous:

Indeed.

And what they prove is H.L. Mencken's observation that nobody ever went broke understimating the intelligence of the American public.

Kip W said...

Well, the only polls W believed in were the ones that counted -- the ones that were supervised by Diebold.