My Kingdom for a Poll?
[Guest post by DRJ]
Press Secretary Robert Gibbs claims the Obama Administration doesn’t care about today’s Gallup Daily Obama Job Approval poll, which is fortunate since it and other polls show Obama at the lowest rating of any modern President at this stage in his term:
“White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs slammed Gallup’s daily tracking poll on Tuesday after it showed President Obama’s approval rating had fallen to 47 percent, the lowest approval rating for any president at this stage of his presidency dating back to President Harry S Truman.
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Despite the scope of Gallup’s data and its reputation for professional political polling, Gibbs dismissed its survey.“I don’t put a lot of stake in, never have, in the EKG that is daily Gallup trend. I don’t pay a lot of attention to the meaninglessness of it.”
And it’s not just Gallup:
“Rasmussen’s recent survey has Obama’s approval at 47 percent.
CNN/Opinion Research found Obama’s approval rating to be 48 percent.
Fox News/Opinion Dynamics pegged Obama’s approval rating at 46 percent.
The last poll to show Obama above 50 percent approval was conducted in mid-November by CBS News.”
As a candidate in Iowa, Obama promised to lead “not by polls, but by principle” although he nevertheless employed six campaign pollsters. Some of them now work for him as President. Even Gallup’s Editor in Chief noticed the inconsistency between what the Obama campaign did and what the Obama Administration says:
“And I’m sure the Obama campaign in 2008 paid a great deal of attention to their own tracking polls measuring how his candidacy was doing as the events of the campaign rocketed across the news each day.”
I think President Obama cares about polls as much as candidate Obama cared — because the polls impact his ability to lead and govern. At this rate, Obama will undoubtedly focus more and more on the urgency of acting immediately and sweepingly.
— DRJ
And I don’t pay a lot of attention to the meaningless of any statement by Robert Gibbs.
Ol Baghdad Bob Gibbs is a ditzy doozy of a press secretary–as much of a caricature of a real White House Press Secretary as is the current oval office inhabitant a caricature of a real POTUSA.
Mike Myers (3c9845) — 12/8/2009 @ 9:45 pmI don’t think he cares. He is putting all the regulatory/legal schemes in place to turn us into a socialist paradise, with his party in control. He will be the savior of the left, forever. He will be our Fidel.
Patricia (b05e7f) — 12/8/2009 @ 9:58 pmGibbs: “I don’t pay a lot of attention to the meaninglessness of it.”
— So, what the people (the voters!) think of Bee Ho [BHO . . . those are his initials, dammit!] does not concern the WH?
The words “let them eat cake” & “ivory tower” are coming to mind.
Icy Texan (8b985a) — 12/8/2009 @ 10:00 pmThese polls tell blue dogs how far they can go obeying Obama and Pelosi and Reid. And they are saying ‘not very far’.
They matter so much that the white house has to go out of their way to claim they don’t matter. It is hilarious, in a sick way, that the so called DEMOCRATIC party is passing legislation that the majority of Americans do not want.
Dustin (44f8cb) — 12/8/2009 @ 10:16 pmAs a doctor, I’ve learned to pay attention to EKGs.
Teflon Dad (287a17) — 12/8/2009 @ 10:51 pmHeh. You obviously don’t have a future in government health care.
DRJ (84a0c3) — 12/8/2009 @ 10:59 pmYou pay attention to the EKG until the death panel tells you to disconnect and use the machine on a younger, healthier patient.
Icy Texan (8b985a) — 12/8/2009 @ 11:14 pmhe sure knows a lot about something that is meaningless to him…. which is amusing, since i know little if anything about things that are meaningless to me.
that must be one of the reasons i’m *not* the white house press secretary and he is….. i’m nuance challenged. %-)
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 12/8/2009 @ 11:19 pmI have to admit, when Obama’s administration says it simply doesn’t give a flip what the people think, I find that to be a puzzle piece that fits pretty well into the mess laid out in front of me. If they did care about what the people thought, would they want to pass measure after measure that the people think should not pass?
Dustin (44f8cb) — 12/8/2009 @ 11:21 pm“not by polls, but by principle” …”I Won!”
AD - RtR/OS! (e93189) — 12/9/2009 @ 1:28 amThat’s the only principle in his life.
maybe his polls would be better if he hadn’t sold the Poles down the river?
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 12/9/2009 @ 2:02 amAnd the Ukrainians and the Georgians (not you, UGA fans) and the Czechs and the Lithuanians and the Latvians and the Estonians and the Israelis and the AMERICANS.
John Hitchcock (3fd153) — 12/9/2009 @ 3:57 amI think he really doesn’t care about the polls. And we shouldn’t care about that poll question either. He needed support to get the ball rolling; he got it coming in to office. The Federal Government is out of control; political partisanship extremely high; cap ‘n trade – EPA end run; health care; stimulus packages and TARP funding and refunding. Deficit spending is so high most people don’t understand it. I’m afraid it is too late to regain control. President Obama can ignore the polls – you no longer matter.
Corwin (ea9428) — 12/9/2009 @ 5:04 amI blame Boosh for these horrendous polls.
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