On the front page of Tuesday's paper, the Washington Post trumpeted new poll results showing "major damage to the GOP" in the wake of the government shutdown. However, writers Dan Balz and Scott Clement waited until page A10 to reveal that "congressional Democrats also sustained damage to their image."
Nowhere in the article did Balz and Clement reveal that the Post found only 46 percent approval for Barack Obama among registered voters. (The poll's result can be found on the website.) Fifty one percent now disapprove of the job the President is doing. According to the Post, the President's numbers with all adults (a less reliable statistic) improve to 48 percent approve and 49 percent disapprove, not exactly a vote of confidence. The two journalists dispensed with this stat in one charitable sentence: "Almost half of all Americans approve of the way [Obama] has handled his job, and an almost identical number disapprove."
If readers looked past the headline and turned to page A10, they would find warning bells for Democrats:
Congressional Democrats also sustained damage to their image. More than six in 10 respondents disapprove of how they handled budget negotiations, and unfavorable ratings of the party have risen to a record high of 49 percent.
Certainly, the numbers for Republicans aren't good. But Balz and Clement skimped on the poll's bad news for Democrats.
ABC News partners with the Post on polls. Good Morning America, Tuesday, similarly ignored bad news for Obama and the Democrats.
