NYT/CBS: Obama Has Reaganesque 'Broad Support'; Gallup Cites Slip, Doubling Disapproval

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Two polls on President Barack Obama's popularity reach conclusions that could hardly be more different.

A New York Times/CBS News poll says that Obama is "benefiting from remarkably high levels of optimism and confidence among Americans about his leadership." But a Gallup poll reports slipping support, and a doubling of his disapproval rate.

What gives?

The first clue about whose poll probably more closely reflects America's mood is the over-the-top, almost Granma-like narrative coming from Jeff Zeleny and Megan Thee-Brenan at Manhattan's Old Gray Lady, whose parent company's stock price in noontime trading today is back below the cost of its Sunday edition (bolds are mine):

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President Obama is benefiting from remarkably high levels of optimism and confidence among Americans about his leadership, providing him with substantial political clout as he confronts the nation’s economic challenges and opposition from nearly all Republicans in Congress, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

A majority of people surveyed in both parties said Mr. Obama was striving to work in a bipartisan way, but most faulted Republicans for their response to the president, saying the party had objected to the $787 billion economic stimulus plan for political reasons. Most said Mr. Obama should pursue the priorities he campaigned on, the poll found, rather than seek middle ground with Republicans.

..... A month into Mr. Obama’s term, with his first big accomplishments, setbacks and political battles behind him, more than three-quarters of the people polled said they were optimistic about the next four years with him as president. Similar percentages said that they thought he was bringing real change to the way things were done in Washington and that they had confidence in his ability to make the right decisions about the economy.

The aura of good will surrounding Mr. Obama at this stage of his presidency is similar to the one that benefited Ronald Reagan as he led the nation out of economic gloom.

With a job approval rating of 63 percent, Mr. Obama is in a strong position to sell his economic policies.

Is it Palm Sunday yet? At least the Times acknowledges what Reagan actually did, which is a rarity.

The Times's slurping blather would be at least slightly tolerable if it weren't for the inconvenient fact that Gallup isn't seeing things the same way at all (HT to LAT's Top of the Ticket; link is in original; bolds are mine):

Survey Reveals Broad Support for President

President Barack Obama remains highly popular among the U.S. public at the end of his first month in office. However, the 63% of Americans currently approving of his job performance is down slightly from his initial 68% rating in January. The percentage disapproving has doubled, from 12% to 24%.

Increased public disapproval of Obama over the past month is mainly offset by a decrease in the percentage of Americans saying they have no opinion of his job performance. The latest figures are based on Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Feb. 19-21.

These shifts result in a slightly different profile for Obama relative to past presidents than what he enjoyed in the immediate afterglow of his inauguration. While Obama's initial 68% job approval rating was one of the highest in Gallup polling history (from Dwight Eisenhower through George W. Bush), his current 63% job approval rating is typical of how the last several presidents have fared at the one-month mark.

In fact a re-sorted look at the table at the link reveals the following approval-disapproval ranking of the past six newly-elected presidents after one month in office in descending order of approval shows that the new president's numbers are nothing special:

Carter, 71-9
Bush 41, 63-13
Barack Obama, 63-24
Bush 43, 62-21
Nixon, 60-6
Clinton, 59-29
Reagan, 55-18

So much for "aura." Obama's positive v. negative gap of 39 points (63-24)is slightly lower than Bush 43's 41 points (62-21), even though the Texan's election was one of the most drawn-out and contentious in history. It's only 2 points higher than Reagan's 37 points (55-18).

Back to the Times's poll: How did the its writers compare Obama's popularity to Reagan's, when no question relating to previous presidents was in their poll (PDF here), and no other frame of reference was provided?

Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.

—Tom Blumer is president of a training and development company in Mason, Ohio, and is a contributing editor to NewsBusters


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What's there to figure out.

The NYT/CBS has their poll and the rest of us in the real world has ours. Nuff said.

 

Disapproval is Racist!

The liberals in the US media have already sold the country and the rest of the world on the fiction that Obammy won some kind of resounding victory in November, when he got only 2% more of the vote than President George W. Bush did in 2004. If they can do that, creating approval for Obammy where there is none will be trivial.

And even so, the big polling organizations range from extremely loonbat left-wing like Pew to center-left like Zogby. The way they ask their questions always tend to favor liberals. And the liberal media have also beat the populace into submission by convincing them that any disapproval of The One is somehow racist.

I declare...

I declare, seriously, that the MSM could go to a KKK rally, poll those there about Obama's poularity, and STILL come back and say that the majority of those they polled love this guy.  An extreme example, but I think my point is made.  The MSM could make the ignorant masses all believe that the sun rises in the West and sets in the East if they ony report on it enough.

Who are these people polling, exactly?  The homeless?  People on welfare?  The New Black Panther Party?  The Democrats in Congress?  Who? 

 

"Liberate tutume ex inferis, liberal puppets."  Me.

I give ObiWama a pass on

I give ObiWama a pass on the poll, as we have said many times there is only one poll that matters and Obama made good on that one.  I personally think he is really scewing the pooch and we will have a hard time recovering, if we do recover, but only time will tell.  All things will pass with time.

Nuke em til they glow then shoot em in the dark.

This spells...

Bodacious

Unbelievable

Lying

Liberaleqsue

Silly

Heresay

Incredible

Terrible.

2010: A GOP Hill

The "Undecides" are forming opinions

What if you took a poll and your guys trends were very bad?  What would you do?  Maybe cite the positive numbers and ignore the negative trends.  Here's what's actually in the NYT/CBS poll.  It's the same as Gallup's.  The Times and CBS just chose to look at the numbers differently.  These look like major slips in just two weeks to me. 

1. Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as President?

                         Approve Disapprove DK/NA

2/2-4/09 CBS      62           15                23

2/18-22/09         63            22               15

2. Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling foreign policy?

                     Approve    Disapprove   DK/NA

2/2-4/09 CBS     50              15             35

2/18-22/09        57              17             26

3. Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling the economy?

                            Approve     Disapprove      DK/NA

2/2-4/09 CBS             55            24                    21

2/18-22/09                57            32                     11

6. Do you think Barack Obama is trying to work with Republicans in Congress in order to get things done, or isn't he? QUESTIONS 6-7 WERE ROTATED.

                   Work with Reps       Not work with Reps      DK/NA

2/2-4/09CBS         81               12                   7

2/18-22/09           74               20                   6

"An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last."  - Sir Winston Churchill

Great post, thanks for the info!

Hunter12,

Thanks for posting this.  I was too lazy to do the research myself!  (I'm such a slacker sometimes!)  These numbers do show an interesting truth.  Your effort is appreciated. 

 

"Liberate tutume ex inferis, liberal puppets."  Me.

Obama: the next Reagan?

If Fraudulent Obama is going to be Reagan-esque tonight, he'd better hope to sound with optimism and toot the "happy days will be ahead soon" tune.

I doubt that he will though.  I sniff a lot of blame Bush and the Repubs in his speech tonight.  It's going to be so one-sided that Governor Jindal better make a resounding rebuttal against the Fradulent's speech.  O-butt-ma will probably be full of crap tonight that the markets will tank tomorrow.

On the good news however, Fed Chmn Bernanke made some positive comments about the recession that the market picked up.  Maybe the Fool may learn something 'bout optimism. 

Why Reagan?

It's interesting that the liberals have chosen the term 'Reaganesque'. Why not 'Carteresque' or 'Clintonesque' or 'Kennedyesque'?  Isn't this in some ways an admission that Reagan was a much better President and role model than any recent democratic President? If Obammy sees Reagan as a role model, isn't that a good thing?

slick

Obama has already used the "Lincolnesque" term now they need to move a little closer our current time and co-opt the Reagan aura as a cover for their machinations. The gullible will swallow it hook line and sinker. The rest of us will know better.

I wonder if tonight will be the night that the O jumps the shark? We can only hope that it happens so soon.

I wonder if tonight will be

I wonder if tonight will be the night that the O jumps the shark? We can only hope that it happens so soon.

NorthCoaster,

I wonder if tonight will be the night he reveals himself to be a Socialist, burns the American flag, tears up the Constitution, and shoots the Fox News correspondents in the audience, all the while saying, "All dissenters will be rounded up and sent to re-education camps, bit*hes!"  Just a thought...

"Liberate tutume ex inferis, liberal puppets."  Me.

dbo... Nah.../the O

dbo...

Nah.../the O machine will do that incrementally...hoping no one will notice...

...until it is far too late...which heck, it really already is.

Here's a real leader

Obama isn't my President.

http://www.gov.state.ak.us/pdf/GovernorTravelExpenseReport_Feb2009.pdf

And add to the fact that Alaska isn't having to borrow like California and one has to be astounded and amazed that this woman isn't President.  And please, Palin haters, don't quote population statistics to me.  It's more than Obama has done.

"What you can not enforce, do not command" -Sophocles-

Approval ratings and the fiscal fiasco

Can't say that I'm surprised that media outlets are politicizing poll numbers in favor of a Democrat. It's all part of the scheme...isn't that what this site is all about? It's really sad that they can't even recognize how poorly Obama is doing compared to how much praise he has received from the media and how little investigating they have done into his past.

It's the same kind of media irresponsibility that allows Obama and his buddies in Congress to now claim that they will be fiscally responsible. It's an absolute joke - and more people would know it if any respectable journalist decided to call them out on it on a routine basis. For anyone who's on the fence about the Democrat promise to balance the budget and reduce deficits, read this:

Lack of Credibility on Fiscal Responsibility

Once the People begin to see the fraud for what it is, we can expect Obama's less-than-stellar approval numbers to consistently drop. I would not be surprised to see his approval ratings almost as low as W. Bush's by the time the next election rolls around.

The only thing that may prevent it would be an unprecedented turn-around in the economy. But the way this first month has gone, I wouldn't count on that.

*If you like the comments, check out the articles.

Just Once

I would like to see a republican standup and put it to Obama. If you had so many GREAT ideas for so long why didn't you offer them sooner. It is not like you got to Washington last week. Oh thats right when you claim all these mistakes were being made you refused to stop campaining and interject yourself as a leader. Since you voted for most of this lets just stop lie about this inheritance of these problems you been here for almost THREE YEARS.

nam

Bbbbut the O was present! Doesn't that count for something? Oh, I forgot, that if you don't take a position, then later you can say anything to justify your current position. Then there is no record  to show anything different.

1) Whereas ”Ronald Reagan

1) Whereas ”Ronald Reagan ... led the nation out of economic gloom”, B. Hussein Obama is leading the nation into economic gloom.  I wonder if the NYT will ever notice the difference.

2) Notice, using Gallop’s information, that Clinton is the only president that had a worse disapproval rating at this point in his presidency.  I think we should stay tuned.

Impunitas semper ad deteriora invitat.

   Reagan's numbers were

   Reagan's numbers were earned.  He had a track record and he knew what he was doing.  Obie, on the other hand, is still learning to ride and he has the media acting as training wheels.

  But as far as NYT/CBS I wouldn't trust anything from those two sludge factories.

They didn't ask me again

and I can't even understand how he got elected except for stupidity like the video claims. As I see it any approval poll of this guy should have a huge deficit like maybe a -trillion or more.

and just who is the broad that is supporting him?

Perhaps it's his wife, Chewbacca's sister (and did she ever put back the drapes she wore to the crowning?). Or maybe it's one of those 'poor' women he's going to give a free house to out of my pocket. No matter, I'm sure even the broad supporting him will eventually fade away just like his approval numbers.

Hilarious

"Perhaps it's his wife, Chewbacca's sister"

Outstanding, wizard. I had missed the resemblance.

Obama in decline

Omama's approval rating is in decline.  The latest Gallup poll has his approval rating at 59 percent.  That's down from 63 percent just last week.  Source.

This is the most interesting fact about that poll:

While Obama's overall approval rating has fallen by four percentag points in recent days (from 63% in Feb. 18-20 polling to the current 59%), his disapproval rating has been steady (24% in Feb. 18-20 polling to the current 25%). Rather, the percentage of Americans without an opinion of his job performance has increased, from 13% to 16%. In essence, Americans in recent days are becoming increasingly unsure about how Obama is doing, rather than becoming more critical.

The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities
of Citizens in the several States.

The US Constitution

Unless you're a fetus.
The US Supreme Court

The CBS/Times polls and the

The CBS/Times polls and the others I have seen this week are there to intentionally deflect from the Gallup poll.

O is and has slipped, they can't have this...they put there feet down!

We will do our own polls and have the networks report this because we are the NYTs and we have Spoken!

As an aside, I heard Matthews last night talking about the slippage, he said it doesn't count ...you know why, because if he took the margin of error # and used it, why he would have to start using the numbers in the 50's...

These people really are a riot...really, all in all they are.

Twisting in the wind hasn't even begun yet with the msm, I, for one, cannot wait to watch this all...the spin is going to be comical.

Do they (Times, Libs,

Do they (Times, Libs, Commies) really believe this junk they're saying, or do they have the mentality that they must continue to fight for Present Obama no matter what because their star is hitched to Dear Leader's (glistening, chiseled) hiney?

Or is that they are just so enraptured with the whole Leftist thing they see it as their duty as revolutionaries to be the de facto propaganda arm of the Social Democrat Party?

One of the 24% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 89% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory.