Drudge demonstrates scorn for facts

Written by Matt McLaughlin

Published

Today, the Drudge Report attacked President Obama with the following headline: “Scorn on the Fourth of July: Obama divides nation.” The headline linked to the website Real Clear Politics, which had compiled nine recent polls of Obama's job approval ratings -- but the polling doesn't show the “scorn” that Drudge crowed about in its headline.

The polls show Obama with an average approval rating of 46.8 percent, and disapproval of 46.6 percent. Of the nine polls, six show Obama with higher approval than disapproval, while one, a Rasmussen Reports survey from July 29 to July 1, found far different results than all the others, with 45 percent of respondents approving of Obama's performance and 55 percent disapproving.

It's not clear how Drudge might explain marginally positive approval of Obama as “scorn,” but examples of true scorn around Independence Day aren't difficult to find in presidential polling. All you have to do is look back a few years.

Polls from the same organizations cited by Real Clear Politics taken late in June and early July of 2008 showed President Bush with truly scornful approval ratings. For example, Newsweek, which had Obama at 48 percent approval and 46 percent disapproval in a June 23-24, 2010, poll, had Bush at 28 percent approval and 63 percent disapproval in a July 2008 poll. CNN had Obama at 50 percent approval last month, while NBC had him at 45 percent. In 2008, both CNN and NBC had Bush at 30 percent approval. Even Rasmussen put Bush's approval at 33 percent in July 2008, with 65 percent disapproval.

Things weren't much better for Bush in 2007. CNN polled Bush's approval in June 2007 at 32 percent, with 66 percent disapproval. Around the same time, Newsweek had him at 26 percent approval, while NBC polled his approval at 29 percent, and Rasmussen had Bush at 38 percent.

As far back as June and July 2006, Bush faced far worse approval ratings than the break-even numbers for Obama that Drudge labeled “scorn.” Approval/disapproval numbers for Bush at that time were 37/53 from CNN, 38/55 from Newsweek, 39/56 NBC.

Fox News put Bush at 41 percent approval and 50 percent disapproval in June 2006. Even Fox News -- now that's scorn.