The Washington Times vs. reality
April 29, 2009 8:56 am ET by Eric Boehlert
Trust us, it wasn't even close.
Even if this is a day old, it's still worth pondering, simply because it provides a glimpse into the crumbling GOP Noise Machine and the lengths it will go to prop up anti-Obama memes.
According to the Times editorial, Obama job approval ratings are "in the basement." He's wildly unpopular as he hits his 100 day mark. Not only unpopular, but Obama's historically unpopular. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't read it with my own eyes:
At the 100-day mark of his presidency, Mr. Obama is the second-least-popular president in 40 years.
No, really. And look, the Times (sorta) provided polling data to back up its Alice-in-Wonderland claim:
According to Gallup's April survey, Americans have a lower approval of Mr. Obama at this point than all but one president since Gallup began tracking this in 1969.
Which is odd because here's what MSNBC.com reported just days ago, using Gallup's own data [emphasis added]:
As we approach President Obama's official 100th day in office, his approval rating in the Gallup poll is average compared with past American presidents -- or is it?
Going back to Eisenhower, Obama's 65% approval rating in the most recent daily Gallup poll is equal to the average Gallup approval for the 10 preceding presidents. Kennedy and Johnson had approval ratings in the low 80s at their 100-day mark. President Ford, in the wake of Watergate and the pardon of President Nixon, had the lowest approval rating at 48%.
But when we look only at presidents in the past 40 years, Obama is near the top. His approval is 7-10 points higher than the approvals of the last three presidents.
Here's the Gallup graphic MSNBC printed online:
Presidents
Approval %
Eisenhower
73%
Kennedy
83
Johnson
80
Nixon
62
Ford
48
Carter
63
Reagan
68
H.W. Bush
56
Clinton
55
W. Bush
57.5
Avg
65%
Compared to previous presidents at the 100 day mark, Obama is more popular than Bush, Clinton, and Bush. Only Reagan polled better, and that was right after he survived an assassination attempt in March of his first year in office. So if you set aside Reagan's rather extraordinary circumstances, Obama is more popular at the 100 day mark than any president since Lyndon Johnson.
Except, that is, inside the Washington Times newsroom, where it's been decreed that Obama is one of our least popular new presidents. (What a relief for the GOP!)
FYI, click here for Gallup's daily tracking poll results for Obama's rolling approval rating. He hasn't been below 59 percent since Inauguration Day. And as of Tuesday, Obama's daily measured approval ratings stood at 63 percent.
Also keep in mind that in mid-April, Gallup released the polling data for Obama's approval rating for his first full quarter in office:
President Barack Obama averages a 63% approval rating for his first quarter in office -- the highest since President Jimmy Carter averaged 69% in 1977.
Reality, 1
Washington Times, 0
UPDATE: Murdoch's NYPost, lilke WashTimes, does its best to rally the dispirited GOP troops with priceless "100 Days, 100 Mistakes" feature.
UPDATE: More assuring voices, courtesy of Dick Morris: Obama's support is about to crater.
Well, clearly Moonies' boys just cherry picked some numbers at their own discretion. They may have used Rasmussen with his GOP/conservative bent or Quinipiac.
Interestingly, both have him in the mid to high 50s so it is still a complete fabrication to say his numbers are "in the basement".
In fact, Quinipiac had him at 58% and said this in their latest survey:
"President Obama's numbers are better than many of his recent predecessors at this point in his term"
So I ask you: In Moon's religion, is it virtuous to lie so long as it furthers your own agenda?
I have been watching the spread of this falsehood through the conservative echo chamber and it really is strikingly like the spread of a deadly virus. It is also maddening how these people are completely oblivious to reality.
It started with a blog post by Judith Klinghoffer on April 24:
OBAMA'S POLL NUMBERS TRAIL THOSE OF W.; GALLUP COVERS IT UP
It quoted a Gallup survey, which was really didn't measure the approval rating but asked the respondent to rate the president: Exellent, Good, OK, etc. The combination of Excellent and Good was 56%. This in not the approval rating, because it excludes those who gave a rating of OK, but presumably approve of the president.
It then spread to (surprise) Fox News. The show was Fox News Watch on April 25.
PINKERTON: Well, I mean, as President Obama has the benefit, he's the first black president to anything. So it's always kind of exciting. Even people who don't like him are still kind of intrigued by him and his family and so on. But every now and then you have to apply some sort of metrics to get some grip on where we are. And Judith Klinghoffer, writing for the History News Network, made the point that Obama ranked 7th out of the last nine presidents in Gallop poll opinion ratings. So 7th out of nine is not so good.
It has now spread to Washington Times and to Fox Nation.
I can't believe that these people are that stupid to compare two different types of surveys. They seem to be willfully engaging in self-delusion.
Compare the circumstances of the nation that George W. Bush inherited from President Clinton: fat and easy are two words you might use, in a description of the nation when George W. Bush stole the Presidency...
But how would you describe the U.S. that President Obama was mandated to preside over?
Lean and troubled might be two words you'd use, and even they may make for an understatement at that.
As I said below, there's a necessary and important context to each and every new President's first hundred days: and the more you examine that context in President Obama's case, the more you're drawn to the extraordinary wreckage and misdeeds of George W. Bush, and of the circumstances and context he passed off, to a new President Obama.
Of all statistics, the statistic called the average is almost always a liar: the average of 1 and 3 and 14 being 6, but 6 being nothing at all like or near to 1 or 3 or 14.
As far as whatever President Obama's approval ratings are at the moment (and poll results are almost the liar that averages are, due to the miniscule answers that are all that those questions allow, and that those questions might mislead, and might truly require answers longer than a single word or two or even two dozen can explain), and how those ratings compare to other Presidents at a similar time in their Presidency (and all of this according to someone named Gallup, who has never once asked me my opinion), it all has a necessary context, that's impossible to appreciate, short of appreciating it in an essay or comprehensive report...
What was the national economy like, in the first hundred days of President Kennedy's Presidency?
Were there U.S. Troops in IRAQ and Afghanistan, or anywhere at all in harm's way, during the first hundred days of Reagan's Presidency?
To say that the circumstances of Johnson's first hundred days was traumatic might be an understatement (due to the manner in which he ascended to the Office), but has any President ever ascended to the Office and inherited the job, from anyone like the absolute screw-up and criminal George W. Bush?
There's only been one President to ever have to take the Office over from George W. Bush, and inherit the wreckage and misdeeds of his Presidency...
There's a particular context to the first hundred days of each Presidency, and President's Obama's inherited situation may well be the worst of any new President's.