With “Losing Support” as the on-screen heading, ABC's World News on Friday night certainly made clear how President Obama is losing favor with the American people as his approval level and attitudes toward his health care efforts continue steadily downward so now more are opposed (50 percent) than in favor (45 percent) and he's suffered a 29-point drop in agreement with enacting a “public option.” But ABC's Kate Snow still saw a “glass half full” view as she managed to end with a positive spin for Obama:
It's not all bad news for the President. We didn't find an overwhelming majority against health care reform. Instead, if you look at the glass half full point of view, the country is basically split. About half of Americans still favor reform, and about half still favor a public option.
Also skipped by World News: How, despite the loaded wording in the question referring to those “angrily protesting at town meetings,” a majority (51 percent) considered the protests “appropriate” versus 45 percent who called them “inappropriate.” (Question 16 in the PDF.)
Fill-in anchor David Muir had set up Snow by noting how the ABC News/Washington Post survey “shows an 11-point erosion” since April, to 46 percent, in approval for Obama's handling of health care. On the 50-45 opposed over supportive of health care reform, Snow pointed out: “The intensity of their views matters, too. Only about a quarter [27%] of supporters feel strongly about that support, but 40 percent of opponents are strongly opposed.”
After relating how “just 34 percent of seniors in our poll support the proposed reforms” and “support for a public option within health care reform has fallen, too,” Snow wrapped up with the “it's not all bad news for the President...” Online, ABCNews.com reported: “Support for a public option, currently the most contentions element of reform, has fallen from 62 percent in June to 52 percent now; 46 percent are opposed, up 13 points.” The PDF of the poll results elaborated: “Nonetheless, that 6-point gap has narrowed substantially from a 29-point advantage in favor of a public option in June.”
—Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center
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Comments Policy
Ralphhhh!
August 21, 2009 - 19:46 ET by nadadhimmiJust as ABC and the rest of the msm ALWAYS used a glass half full point of view for Bush, and Bush, and Reagan, and Ford, and Nixon, etc. The bias and intellectual dishonesty of the presstitutes make me puke.
Unreal
August 21, 2009 - 20:21 ET by jdlybrandABC picks the damnedest things about which to be optimistic.
"What a revoltin' development this is!"
Chester Riley
The bias of these networks
August 21, 2009 - 20:57 ET by mostlymoderateThe bias of these networks is comical. If it were the other way around, the country would "overwhelmingly support the President on health care reform".
Graphic
August 21, 2009 - 21:13 ET by TexndocInteresting graphic. First time I believe I've seen that the smaller number is on top.
I tried to send this in "contact", but not allowing me to.
August 21, 2009 - 21:20 ET by TexndocPlease Newsbusters staff:
There was a black female Princeton "professor" on Olbermann tonight who was very very clip and quote worthy:
(Paraphrasing) "When Bush's numbers were dropping, the country was saying 'Enough! We've had enough!' When Obama's poll numbers are dropping, the country is saying 'We love and trust you. You're not doing enough, we want more.' "
Sure hope you guys saw this. Very LOL material.
so its an underwhelming majority lol
August 21, 2009 - 21:24 ET by katainkentremember when 53% was an overwhelming majority? Darn near a mandate?!
___________________________________________
"Maybe you're better off not having the surgery, but taking the painkiller" Barack Obama (Dr. In Chief)
Yea, California and New York
August 21, 2009 - 21:45 ET by GregEYea, California and New York populations sure can do a number on the national percentage eh?
Greg.... Spooky...isn't
August 21, 2009 - 21:59 ET by bigtimerGreg....
Spooky...isn't it?
Obama's a Community Agitator, a walking, talking destroyer. ~ Rush Limbaugh
Very. And think about
August 21, 2009 - 22:04 ET by GregEVery. And think about it. Someone can win all 50 states, each by one single vote, and the national percentage is 50%-50%, with a mere 50 vote majority. Would that person have a mandate? Heck, they would have won every single state. The question can only be answered by first saying "parties aside" since the media would act completely different based on the party that had won all the states.
Obama is utilizing the South Park process.....
August 21, 2009 - 21:36 ET by big.league.slider"Memo from D. Axlerod
Subject: Recommended presidential strategy
Step 1- Win election.
Step 3- Run for re-election. "
"The problem with political jokes is they get elected." -Henry Cate VII (?)
"...if you look at the
August 21, 2009 - 21:43 ET by GregE"...if you look at the glass half full point of view, the country is
basically split. About half of Americans still favor reform, and about
half still favor a public option."
Oh yea, just like the glass half full position they promoted when Bush's approval was of a similar percentage during the Social Security debate? Oh, wait a minute...
Glass half full
August 22, 2009 - 00:01 ET by merlin61This is the new math, fuzzy math.
Clunker Health
August 22, 2009 - 08:23 ET by billbBecause of so many people taking advantage of free Clunker money, we've seen the Obama Administration collapse under the weight of it's own incompetence. It's not hard to envision Obamacare in the midst of a Flu outbreak.
Last call....
August 22, 2009 - 08:48 ET by acumenThe glass is not half full. The glass is not half empty. Any engineer worth his salt will tell ABC that the glass is twice the needed size. The glass in this case being the unsustainalbe national debt.
ABC's glass full ...
August 22, 2009 - 13:07 ET by metaphorsbwithuI think, on the other hand, that ABC is completely full of it. And then some.
metaphorsbwithu
Thats right ! ! ! ! !
August 22, 2009 - 22:32 ET by Cho Yi FanThat's right it's not all bad news, the glass is half full by cracky....and in all 57 states too!!! And 52% support a government run option now that's a real mandate we can all get chirpy about! So where's that death book so I can get started?
"Anger cannot be dishonest." Marcus Aurelius
Without Tapper, nobody would
August 22, 2009 - 22:42 ET by silentmajorityWithout Tapper, nobody would read/listen to anything ABC has to say.
My question is, what is Kate Snow snorting?
August 23, 2009 - 17:29 ET by R D HelmAnd somebody needs to tell this twit that the bills floating around have nothing to do with fixing the problems in our nation's health care system, most of which are caused by government in the first place.
-Dave
FOX Daytime Is The Same...
August 23, 2009 - 19:10 ET by jdripperThe Ken and Barbie dolls that anchor FOX news during the day are just as bad. They bemoan the fact when they have no good news to report and have even applauded when there is good news especially about the economy.
The days of "just state the facts" is long, long gone, and I fear will never be seen again.
Jack
"If at age 20 you are a conservative then you have no heart. If at age 30 you are a liberal then you have no brains." Sir Winston Churchill
I dont think the glass is half full
August 23, 2009 - 20:16 ET by spmcintyreI think the glass is to big by half..