Mar 24 2009
Poll Crash
Obama seems to be flirting with losing a majority of the people in one poll coming out. And it will not be getting better if this is the reason:
The numbers are going down,†Zogby told the Herald. “It’s not because of the gaffes, but a combination of high expectations and that things aren’t moving fast enough with the economy.â€
And they are not going to be moving at all for months yet to come. Obama will not survive this fire storm of ridiculous expectations he told America he could pull off. His grandiose talk has come back to bite him. Part the seas already Barack!
Update: Hmm, a confirming poll:
Forty-two percent of those surveyed disapprove of the president’s handling of the AIG bonuses, while roughly the same percentage – 41 percent – approve. Another 17 percent don’t know or aren’t sure.
I have ESP and this poll shows what I have been sensing. I would also like to see the wording of the questions for the polls which show him at 65%. Heck – if someone asked me “Do you think Barack Obama is a nice man?” I would probably say – “sure.” But that doesn’t mean I like his policies or think he isn’t pushing this country in a direction that scares the heck out of me! Lot’s of wrong headed people are nice. I am related to some!
Don’t forget that we’re supposed to get our souls healed, too.
It is Zogby and so a big grain of salt is necessary, but Rasmussen is showing the same trend.
Obama might be trying to do too much too soon.
Sometimes slow and steady in a leader is more reassuring than hysterical and spastic.
lacegrl:
In fact in terms of right track/wrong track, the majority of Americans still think we are on the wrong track.
AJ:
Re: the “Update”, I find it curious that you decided not to include the next two paragraphs:
“Yet President Obama’s overall job performance rating appears unaffected by the AIG fallout. Sixty-four percent approve of the president’s performance, roughly the same as last week.
And ratings for the president’s handling of the overall economy are actually up slightly: Sixty-one percent now approve, up from 56 percent last week.”
Gee – I wonder why? Could it be that those paragraphs completely contradict your assertion that it is “a confirming poll”?
Terrye – more importantly, it’s a Zogby Internet poll. These polls don’t use a random sample, and are notoriously inaccurate.
Guy:
I realize that Zogby is very iffy. But Obama had higher ratings on the very same kind of poll a few weeks ago.
I am simply saying there might be a trend.
Keep in mind that Bush had an approval rating of 63% three years into his presidency. And look at how people like you today just love to make fun of his numbers.
These things will change, go up and down for a variety of reasons.
I think Obama is acting like an idiot. I honestly believe that he is not up to the job.
Just today he was talking about how we need to do away with chaotic capitalism.
I am actually reading Ayn Rand for Chrisake. The man is turning me into a freaking Libertarian.
And Guy, Gallup’s poll is of adults, period. That could be anyone of any party and any persuasion. Rasmussen actually polls likely voters. That means people who pay attention and they are showing a decline for Obama.
Personally, I tend to trust sites that track the trends of several different polls, like pollster.com or RCP. Gallup seems to favor Obama a bit much, and Rasmussen’s “Disapprove” numbers look like an obvious outlier when you compare them to… well, everything else out there.
Also, Rand considered Objectivism to be significantly different than libertarianism. I think both are interesting in an intellectual sense, but have no place in the real world as an actual political philosophy in practice.
John Scalzi (the sci-fi writer) had an amusing write-up about Liberals, Conservatives and Libertarians a few years ago: you can read it here. Highlights:
“Liberals champion the poor and the weak but do it in such condescendingly bureaucratic ways that the po’ illedumacated Cleti would rather eat their own shotguns than associate with the likes of them.”
“Conservatives don’t actually bother to spend time with people who are not conservative, and thus become confused and irritable when people disagree with them; fundamentally can’t see how that’s even possible, which shows an almost charming intellectual naiveté.”
“Libertarian: Unusually smug for a political philosophy that’s never gotten anyone elected for anything above the local water board. […] Blissfully clueless that Libertarianism is just great as long as it doesn’t actually involve real live humans.”
I am surprised that Obama is dropping so fast in the polls so soon.
I am not surprised. He vowed to go through legislation “line by line” and cut out waste … and then passes an eleventy zillion dollar budget with over 8,000 earmarks.
The kool-aid drinkers on the left won’t abandon him until they get openly laughed at for supporting him (kinda like what happened with Carter), but the center took Obama’s campaign rhetoric at face value and gave him the benefit of the doubt. It is dawning on them than they have been had. It wasn’t the left that elected Obama, it was the center. And right now it looks like they are bailing on him.
Obama’s popularity numbers are now below Bush’s at this stage of his first term despite the Gore controversy. The left will believe anything their leaders say. They will even rationalize ways of reinterpreting reality when it comes to supporting their elected members. It is the center that doesn’t like being lied to.
Obama is done. There will not be a second term.
The mask is slowly coming off and the true face of Barack is being exposed—many do not like what they are seeing. Liberalism is a search for Utopia, a search that will never have success or an end. Really a sad bunch.
The mask is slowly coming off and the true face of Barack is being exposed
I don’t understand statements such as this. To me he’s never had a mask on. He looks EXACTLY as he always has to me. He is EXACTLY the person he has always appeared to be.
He can not make a speech without a teleprompter.
I always knew he had zero executive experience and it is very obvious now. I’m not even slightly surprised.
I keep hearing that he’s a ‘smart’ person. I see no evidence of that. He has always appeared to be good at carrying on the actions as dictated by his puppeteer.
In case it’s not clear, I’m not even slightly impressed by him or his actions.
In his attempts to destroy America, I hope he fails spectacularly.
I have to agree with Guy… sites such as RCP that track many different polls are the best gauge on the public’s true mood. But regardless, Obama’s polls will continue to drop. This man campaigned as a messianic figure and allowed others to compare him to FDR, Lincoln, etc, etc, etc. Those are big shoes to fill.
And as Lacegirl pointed out, it depends on what question the pollster is asking. I ask that of any poll I read, not just approval ratings. What the polling question is and how it is asked can skew results either way. Personally, I think Obama would be a good guy to hang out with. But I fear his policies will lead us astray.
AJ, this is important, you have to see this. I have been trying to warn people for the past two years that this was coming … and here we are.
The Social Security surplus is now GONE. All excess SS spending over what is taken in goes right to the budget deficits. And no surplus now to help cover the deficits.
Hey AJ where did you get that picture of my last family reunion. And while I thought we were dysfunctional, it turns out we must have been pre-gaming for the summer assault on DC.
And while the trend in the polls may be encouraging it still points to a lot of very stupid people still out there (that would be those who approve of him for the trolls out there). These are the people I need government to protect me from.
And I am not sure what a “nice” guy is anymore but I certainly wouldn’t want to hang out with this nitwit socialist.