The GOP-friendly Wall Street Journal newsroom comes to the aide of New Jersey's Republican governor, Chris Christie, doing its best to portray his latest polling results as great news for the politician. Except that, they aren't necessarily.
Journal headline:
Christie Retains Strong Backing
In fact, the Quinnipiac College poll that the Journal cites found Christie's approval rating to be 51 percent. In the words of Quinnipiac's analysis, that represents “decent” support, probably because half of voters think Christie deserves either a grade of C, D or F for his performance so far.
But voila! In the pages of the Journal, that 51 percent approval rating gets upgraded to “strong” support. (If you doubt theJournal ever described Obama's support as “strong” when he was at 51 percent, than we think alike.)
Even more telling is the heavy-handed way the Journal tries to portray the fact that New Jersey doesn't think Christie would make a good president and flips that around into: Jersey voters want Christie to stay where he is!
Though his movements have the markings of a man exploring presidential aspirations, Mr. Christie said he doesn't know what he has to do “short of suicide” to convince the press to stop asking him questions about a run. Garden State voters say they want him to stay put. Less than a quarter of voters said he would make a good president, a Quinnipiac poll released Tuesday said.
Again, voters overwhelmingly think Christie isn't up for the Oval Office job. Yet in the caring hands of the Journal team that just means locals just want to keep him closer.
Or something.