When One Bad Poll For Obama = Big News
March 30, 2011 1:52 pm ET by Eric Boehlert
A new poll from Quinnipiac University is making headlines this week. Why? Because it shows Obama's approval rating at a low point of 42 percent. And when a single poll (and possibly outlier) shows Obama's approval rating going down, that's news!
From The New York Daily News:
President Obama's approval ratings hit all-time low, half don't think he deserves second term: poll
From Politico:
Poll: Obama's approval hits new low
From The Hill:
Survey: Obama's approval rating at all-time low 42 percent
News organizations all agree: The Quinnipiac poll is a big deal. But for context, here's a look at all the Obama approval rating polling results currently listed at PollingReport.com, for the month of March:
-CBS: 49%
-CNN: 51%
-Fox: 49:%
-CNN: 50%
-ABC/Washington Post: 51%
-Allstate/National Journal: 49%
-Bloomberg: 51%
-Ipsos/Reuters: 49%
And here's a very recent result, not listed by PollingReport.com:
-Gallup: 49%
For the month of March, Obama's approval rating has been quite consistent (average: 50%), just as it's been for nearly the last 18 months. But when the Quinnipiac poll came out and broke with that trend, and broke with the trend in a negative direction, suddenly that single poll was big news.
P.S. Why is Politico acting like WND now? Have they always been?
What they are is a bunch of DC beltway insiders that breathlessly play-up he said/she said baloney. They are the People Magazine for the DC crowd.
Why they appear more conservative is because their leading editors (Jonathan Martin & Mike Allen) spent a number of years closely following Republicans like Cheney, Bush and McCain and write glowlingly about them in order to get "insider" details, aka "access".
I tend to look at the above website, they aggregate the polls, and come up with a simple average. Even with the 42 from Quinnipiac and the 43 from Rasmussen, he's still averaging 47% overall.
Bad news for Obama, no matter how false or insignificant, means good news for the Campaign For Obama's Failure (aka the conservative agenda).
How DARE you besmirch the name of St. Ron?
He polled at 100% approval the entire time he was in office. Ollie North said so.
You can tell by their own actions they don't see Obama as being vulnerable in polling. Republican Presidential Exploratory Committees are showing these potential candidates the polling and it's leading them not to run at all.