I know, I know, don’t give out to me – poll-watching at this stage is as pointless as Rick Perry or Mitt Romney’s existence on earth. But, still, I thought this might be worth mentioning:
Remember when the President’s Gallup approval dropped to 38 two weeks ago? It was reported more widely than the landing on the moon. Well, almost. That was that, he was finished, a one-termer, we were reliably informed. And that’s been the narrative ever since, right?
Whisper it …. despite all the crappy jobs news, he’s risen 6 points in just two weeks, up to 44 today.
It’s still insanely low, no arguments at all. And his disapproval is way too high (50) – although that’s gone down 5 points in two weeks.
So, that’s an 11 point turnaround, from -17 to -6 in just 14 days.
Hey, I’m not suggesting we crack open the champagne, and I know these figures will continue to be a rollercoaster, depending on which way the wind is blowing. But an 11 point turnaround in two weeks is hardly insignificant – and puts more than a little dent in that narrative.
Not that it will change the narrative. “Oh, well, you can’t trust Gallup,” they’d probably say. Funny, they trusted them two weeks ago.
The Obama Diary 
It’s a BAZILLION times higher than overall Congressional approval which is currently at 12.3%.
84% DISAPPROVAL.
just sayin…… CONTEXT.
PBO is a ROCK STAR next to how much people hate Congress.
The GOP completely overreached and misread the 2010 election results as some sort of mandate for extremism other than an ignorant attempt to put the brakes on what swing voters wrongly perceived as liberal spending which produced little. Seeing the economy derailed, as POTUS said the GOP would, puts the previous spending (a small fraction of what the GOP one-party state spent!) which prevented a Great Depression into some context.
I totally agree with you about the Republican overreach in claiming a mandate. I think they are able to do that because the media act as Republican enablers. President Obama received 69 million votes. In 2010, Republicans who took over the House and increased their numbers in the Senate were voted in office by 44 million people. Why is it that 44 million voters confer more mandate than 69 million voters?
Did you see Robert Gibbs telling Chris Matthews his accusations against President Obama were “crazy and unfounded”? Chris questioned if the President really is a progressive. Chris told Gibbs, “You do me a disservice”, and really seems hurt. GOOD!
Well he shouldn’t have suggested such a crazy thing. They think they can say anything about the President and not be challenged. Bull. Those days are over.
No Chris- he is a secret republican like you!
That is why fox, CNN snd msnbc loves him so much! Lol!
All the crazy stuff he spouts, he needs to be able to take a simple factual criticism.
i honestly ignore polling until it’s closer to election time.
You’re sensible to do that Shay! My only point with this is that we know how the media use dropping approval ratings to frame the story, and a narrative like that can be damaging. How many ‘President’s approval plummets!’ stories have we read the last few weeks? But, needless to say, they ignore the ratings when they’re rising. I just think this rise is worth a report or two.
yes, thanks for reporting it chips! if it weren’t for you we would not have heard it elsewhere!
right on! the good numbers should at least get a little qoutation since they spend more air time breathlessly reporting the low numbers
It’s GOP/MURDOCH world. We just live in it. I honestly don’t know how what to do to get a more balanced media.
Watch PBS, CBC (Canadian Broadcasting), BBC America (Brittish Broadcasting), Al Jazeera English… ANYTHING but the MSM which is no longer so mainstream!
*British*
Yeah polls this far out mean absolutely nothing. A lot of people may say they don’t approve of Obama’s job performance but they’re not asked about whether or not they’ll vote for him. I know some people who are upset over Obama yet they’ll vote for him in a heartbeat because the GOP is freaking nuts!
DNC fall meeting in Chicago Friday and Saturday:
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2011/09/democratic_national_committee_11.html
Debbie Wasserman Shultz nominated Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak to be DNC vice-chair.
“If the Democratic National Committee were seeking either energy or ideas, it probably couldn’t have done better than choosing Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak as a vice chairman of the organization that creates strategy for the huge elections of 2012.
Rybak will officially become a DNC vice chairman this weekend at its meeting in Chicago. ”
http://www.minnpost.com/stories/2011/09/08/31416/mayor_rt_rybaks_high-profile_national_democratic_post_is_perfect_for_longtime_obama_advocate
Ah that R.T. He’s a good guy! 🙂
I am in the camp which thinks that this is going to be won on the ground (these early donations to help get the infrastructure in place count so much!) and therefore polling this far out doesn’t mean a whole lot (although gallup’s crosstabs are consistently very useful for beating back the nonstop propaganda that the base is deserting POTUS), but I too find it very *curious* indeed that a few points dropped in ratings means nonstop media coverage, whereas POTUS recovering those few points is greeted with silence. Great point, and great blog.
The pResidents payroll tax cut- the best tax cut that nobody knows about:
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2011/09/obamas_payroll_tax_cut_the_bes.html
Let’s see who is going to report this change in numbers. Any bets on who WON’T mention it? The clowns who aren’t going to attend the Presidents speech tonight are DeMint (R SC), Brown (R GA), Vitter (R LA), Rep. Ron Paul (R TX). Also, the idiot Joe Walsh. Seems to me that they pretty much are good ol’ Southern boys.
Joe Walsh is not only an idiot, but a scary idiot. I’m in Illinois, but happily not in his district.
Me too Sheila. At least we don’t have any voter restriction laws like some other states. Our biggest problem is APATHY. We gotta be sure that all eligible voters are IN AND READY TO GO!
I’m fired up and ready to go! 😀
Reid sceduled a vote after the speech so I think the Senators have to appear. Diaper Vitter was whining about it cuz now he can’t attend some football party.
🙄
Just goty text from ofa- telling me to watch the speech!
Sure will!
Thanks Chips. When his approval rating dropped to 38% the GOPMedia crowed and crowed and played it on an endless loop. Now that it’s gone up…. crickets. They’re all pathetic.
I always figure 2-3% of the disapproval numbers is from the left, who will vote for him anyways. I figure if you approve, you’ll vote for him but if you disapprove it doesn’t mean you’ll necessarily vote Republican.
So he could be at 46-47% if you flip the potential disapproval from the left who are trying to make political point. And he’s not even campaigning yet. And his personal likability is near 70% still.
The major driver of the skyward unemployment rate is the public sector job losses. I think it’s important for the President to point this out. People want to focus on the deficit/debt and spending cuts – well that’s jobs being cut. It seems that folks don’t make that connection.
I worry about the swing voters. We didn’t win without them in 2008, and despite what the PL says, we cannot cannot cannot win without them in 2012. The key is whether they are seeing things our way in terms of a pathway to economic recovery being Keynesian rather than trickle down. The public is with us in a manner in which they were not in late 2010 (solid majorities for taxing the rich and spending on jobs), and I’m hoping that POTUS running against this 112th do-nothing session of Congress in addition to GOP presidential candidates with no new ideas save the failed policies of the past can do the trick next year as well.
I doubt when it comes time, they won’t want what the Tea-O-P is selling. It’s ours and the President’s job to tell them they can’t go back to Bush III (Perry) or Romney “Corporations are people” where they are party first, Americans not so much.
No mention of it on my MSNBC.com home page. Or at Yahoo, which always seems to be the first to trumpet bad poll numbers for President Obama.
Hmmmm.
Volunteers got some great advice from someone in the campaign the other day, pay no attention to the pundits or polls, keep your heads down, keep working and we will prevail.