Tuesday, June 09, 2009

I Need Help Here

Over at WHERE ARE MY KEYS there is a post about how people are essentially giving up on Obama, based on a Gallup poll. To illustrate, they're using this graph:

fet5mwu0ceeswrrowsynow

When I pointed out that Obama comes out looking pretty good in this poll (more people approve of his performance than disapprove) they said "but approval for his policies is lower than approval for HIM." I'm paraphrasing. Furthermore, they point out, approval for his policies has dropped significantly.

And admittedly it has dropped, that's true. Whether its significant is subject to debate. Still, to point at that graph and crow about it seems pretty wingnutty to me. And of course, there is the overarching, always hanging in the air, question: If they media is so lefty-biased, how did a thing like this happen? Why didn't NBC stop it?

Obviously, if the media was truly fair, Bush would have never went below 60% approval and Obama would be at 15% right now. I was crazy to even ask.

9 comments:

wamk (at the airport) said...

Piker, you never cease to amaze me with how you fail to understand things that are spelled out for you several times.

The graph shows overall ratings for Obama and his policies. There are aditional graphs provided at the link in the post, and I specifically pointed out to the reader to view those poll results as well.

When you commented on the post, and clearly hadn't followed the link, I cut-and-pasted their findings for you.

Obama has seen double-digit increases in "disapprove" for a few of the categories, and a 4 point increase in another. Those increases have occured over the last three months, and are trending up.

If you don't consider a double-digit increase in a quarter to be significant, you are fooling yourself.

As to your complete lack of understanding, I can't help you there. The premise of your post is utterly ridiculous.

I'm baffled how you can't understand that it is possible for a person to be popular, yet his policies are not.

Since you didn't answer a few of my questions posed in my last comment, I'll ask one here: if a poll of Americans over the last 3 1/2 months showed a 12 percent increase, would that be significant?

piker62 said...

"I'm baffled how you can't understand that it is possible for a person to be popular, yet his policies are not." Yes, as the graph shows, his policies are tremendously unpopular.

Anybody else care to weigh in? Anyone with a funny made-up name, for example?

wamk said...

Piker, if your boss asks you to bring him a stapler, do you hand him your cell phone?

piker62 said...

I think the more pertinent question is what do I do if my boss insists the cell phone is a stapler. Thankfully, you are not my boss.

wamk said...

What does your doctor have to do with my chocolate chip cookie recipe?

piker62 said...

I know its frustrating when people don't reach the same conclusions as you do. Believe me, I know.

We are in agreement on the substance of this though. Obama's approval ratings are not as high now as they were the week he took office. I'm totally with you there.

Perhaps you will allow that, at least for now, more people approve of Obama's performance than do not. Yes?

wamk said...

I'll answer your question when you answer mine.

This has nothing to do with Obama's approval ratings.

It's about the increase of the "disapprove" ratings of several key issues over the last 3 1/2 months.

Are you really this clueless, or just pushing my buttons here?

Seriously, which one is it?

piker62 said...

All right, his disapproval ratings are higher than when he took office. So yes, since January 20th, he has lower approvals and higher disapproval.

And yes, of course I'm pushing your buttons. So your turn now.

wamk said...

His overall numbers are very high. I've commented on that several times.