November 20, 2013

Obama at 37%.

As pictured by Drudge:



Bush's final approval rating in the CBS poll was 22%, but he didn't sink as far as 37% until 2006, 2 years after reelection. [ADDED: According to what's shown now here, Bush was at 37% in November 2005, which corresponds exactly to Obama. I was looking at a less detailed graph.] Bush's real sinking in the polls occurred with Katrina, which the media exploited to damage Bush.

By contrast, the media have generally boosted Obama, especially last year, facilitating his reelection. They minimized the various scandals, and they declined to delve into the looming problems in Obamacare.

Now we see crashing in Obama polls, and part of this is the media's fault. 1. They lulled people into thinking Obama was doing well enough, which continued his presidency, based on a false picture. 2. When the true picture could no longer be obscured, it was so glaring and obvious, and it got everyone's attention. 3. So many people were liking Obama because liking Obama was a cultural phenomenon, which inflated Obama's popularity and left it vulnerable to crashing when, at long last, there's a cultural message that it's the thing now not to like him anymore. 4. Plenty of people probably never liked him all that much, and they're just liberated from the social pressure to follow the latest thing, which is now so 5 years ago.

68 comments:

Henry said...

Now we see crashing in Obama polls, and part of this is the media's fault.

The crashing may be the media's fault, but I suspect that his poll numbers are still higher than they would be without six years of careful handling.

Tibore said...

People may be crowing that that's low, but my question is that given what he's done, why's it so !@#%^$#@ high? It should be in the single freakin' digits.

Sorry, but he's still being protected by the news industry.

Tim said...

The media has generally boosted Obama? How about continually, 24/7 round-the-clock adoration? Any non-democrat, esp non-black, would have been vilified. Like Bush was.

Tim said...

The media has generally boosted Obama? How about continually, 24/7 round-the-clock adoration? Any non-democrat, esp non-black, would have been vilified. Like Bush was.

Skeptical Voter said...

I agree with Tibore. If I were Chinese, I'd say that the running lap dogs of Obama in the media have protected him since his first election.

Unfortunately truth to Obama is like Kryptonite to Superman. And we've just got a new shipment of "Kryptonite". It's gonna go hard for the progressive "reality based community".

AustinRoth said...

The media did indeed boost Obama, but don't overlook the illegal steps he and his administration took, such as the IRS scandal against conservative opposition, the recently discovered manipulation of the jobs report and unemployment rate by the census bureau, etc.

TosaGuy said...

I didn't like Obama before it was cool.

SGT Ted said...

The media has been carrying his water all along, enabling his dysfunction by smearing his critics as racists, wanna-be Confederate slavers and the Taliban.

If the media were after him like they were after Bush, he'd be at 22% or less, right now.

Anonymous said...

Over-Inflated Tires Lead to a Less Forgiving Ride. Higher Risk of Blow Out.

Tom said...

I think his popularity was boosted by a media myth and some well timed assistance (I'm looking at you, Candy Crowley). But his re-election was also fueled by IRS abuse, withholding evidence on Bengahazi and Fast & Furious, and IRS abuses. Now it also looks like people were misled on jobs numbers. Contrast that with George HW Bush where the media continued to portray the economy in resecession even when it was growing at 3.5% right before the election.

Tom said...

I was going to edit out mention IRS abuse twice. But I think it's big enough to mention twice :-)

Shouting Thomas said...

Great, I guess, but the SOB is still Prez, and will be for another 3 years.

Frozen economy guaranteed until he gets out.

Remember all those promises to "focus on the economy like a laser?" Ain't never gonna happen.

Brando said...

Why are the numbers still so high, after years of high deficits, economic stagnation, and now Obamacaregate? Because politics in this country have calcified to the point that there will always be a hard core of people that stick with their team no matter what. Not so much because they like what their team is doing, but because they can't see it in a vacuum, but instead see it as "well at least he isn't those guys on Team Red/Blue!"

It'd be the same way if a Republican was going through this. The 63% of the respondents who are "not approving" the President's job right now are made up of Team Red, Team Neither, and the Team Blues who can at least express their disgust with how bad this guy is floundering.

The only real question now is will this be irreparable, as it was for Bush? Or can he bounce back? The next 12 months will determine it.

rhhardin said...

The media are in the audience business, not the news business.

Whatever it takes, even today.

The higher-paying narrative wins.

Brando said...

Crowley was a disgrace--I don't care whether Obama or Romney was right; in a debate the only job of the moderator is to pose the questions and ensure that the participants are following the rules. By weighing in like she did, she basically made sure that no self respecting campaign will ever agree to her as moderator again.

PB said...

With all the scandals, mismanagement and malfeasance, Obama should be at 5% approval.

As the SNL skit illustrated a few weeks a go, there is a segment of the population that will support him no matter what - just because he is black. You've got to wonder what it will take for these people to wake up.

Hagar said...

The Democratic Party, the "progressive movement" and the MSM, and Obama and his "Choom gang" are not necessarily all working off the same sheet music.

cubanbob said...

As was said by a Newsweek guy years ago the MSM gives a Democrat a 15% boost in the polls. Obama is effectively at 22% and trending downwards. I said it when he was first running that Obama will be the jump the shark moment for Liberalism. While it's too soon to know for sure it looks like my observation will be proven true. It's not that ObamaDemocratCare is an epic disaster-it is- but nothing Obama and the Democrats have done in the last four plus years has been nothing more than horrible. One can say the Democrats have finally found their Nixon except Nixon was actually competent and nowhere near as dishonest and corrupt as this gang.

Tank said...

PB Reader said...
With all the scandals, mismanagement and malfeasance, Obama should be at 5% approval.

As the SNL skit illustrated a few weeks a go, there is a segment of the population that will support him no matter what - just because he is black. You've got to wonder what it will take for these people to wake up.


They are awake. They like him because he is black. And a Democrat. Black people are allowed to like people who are black. White people do this too, but are not allowed to say it.

David said...

It's only a few months away from the Obama Comeback blizzard.

37% is pretty low but we will see if other polls agree. The amazing thing is how well he has held up in the polls despite the failures. This is not all due to the media. It's probably not because people really like him. I think low expectations for government generally have kept him higher. Plus anyone looks good compared to Congress.

It is not guaranteed that Obamacare will continue to be a near term disaster. The real disaster is longer term and the near term stuff can be fixed. The right is putting to many eggs in the Obamacare Failure basket.

traditionalguy said...

The delusion that Obama's Gang and Press uses daily is that the President is a guardian of the American people. That was a comforting false assumption now revealed in all of its ugliness as all betrayal.

Lincoln said at Gettysburg Americans fought for a Government that is of the people, by the people, FOR THE PEOPLE. But Obama is an intentional Destroyer of that form of Government.

Limited Blogger said...

Remember what was said about the novice diver who died? It just as well describes Obama.

Mr. So-and-So "suggested that Mr. Mevoli’s natural talent might have pushed him to the sport’s top tier too fast, perhaps stripping him of the 'important experience that is needed to stay alive in an exceptional depth.'"

Rusty said...

It is no longer a matter, if it works or how ell it works, David. It has now become a matter of how can they get people to trust it.
It is an invitation to corruption.
Personally. I don't want anything to do with it.

Christy said...

My device can't read the underlying numbers for this poll, but a commenter over at Jammie Wearing Fools links and says the poll discounts Republicans by 15% and over represents Independents. So who knows how bad the real numbers may be.

Love the Drudge pic with the magnifying glass.

gk1 said...

Thank god this horrible president is hobbled by low ratings and toxic to other democrats running for office. It would be an added bonus if the media gets drug down with Obama.

SteveR said...

HRC 2016-Competence to the Rescue

Anonymous said...

Sorry folks, you are correct:

By contrast, the media have generally boosted Obama, especially last year, facilitating his reelection.

but ultimately wrong.

By 2015, the press will be savaging Obama. Trying to make up for lost time, recover their cred, and to justify their new adoration for the Democratic outsider that is the nation's only hope of recovery.

If the Dem wins, it's 4 more years of adoration. If the Rep wins, it will be, "look how tough we were on Obama. Our investigative reporting on POTUS Walker (or whomever) is soft in comparison..."

Original Mike said...

"Remember all those promises to "focus on the economy like a laser?" Ain't never gonna happen."

Obama focusing on the economy? We do not want it to happen.

The good news here is that, while he may be President for three more years, perhaps he won't have the political capital to do any more harm.

Anonymous said...

Original Mike said...
The good news here is that, while he may be President for three more years, perhaps he won't have the political capital to do any more harm.


One needs no political capital to:

1. Fuck up foreign policy
2. Get soldiers killed in useless message sending
3. Ignore laws
4. Issue Executive Orders

RecChief said...

just think where his approval rating would be if there wasnt' a constant drum beat of Obama boosterism from the media. Maybe there are some cracks in the Obama cult of personality.

Kelly said...

It's still on the high side. Just wait until people who are insured through their employer see what's in store for them.

My son-in-law carries insurance for himself and my daughter through the Finance company he works for. They basically had Cadillac coverage with 25.00 copays. Now they have a deductible of 3500 and premiums have doubled. But they get free birth control! The company has opened up health savings accounts for each employee to help offset the costs. They'll match dollar for dollar. Not all companies have such deep pockets, there are going to be a lot of unhappy people, likely in the millions. His insurance renews in January.
.

Original Mike said...

@The Drill SGT: Sigh.

Original Mike said...

Democrats in Panic Over Obama:

Didn't Congressional Democrats write ObamaCare? I remember, perhaps incorrectly, that Obama did his usually aloof, hands-off behavior with the actual writing the bill.

Carnifex said...

When SCOTUS re-tries HNICcare again, and they will, Chief Traitor Roberts will look at the damage he has done to the credibility of the SCOTUS and rule against it. The irony being he changed his vote the first time to improve the reputation of the court.

If he had done his job in the first place, none of this would be happening. Ergo, the Chief Traitor Roberts is a fool.

DWBudd said...

I live in Paris, where President Francois Hollande makes Obama look like Eisenhower. The last polls show Hollande at 15% approval, the lowest in the history of the Fifth Republic.

Words like "naufrage" (sinking) are becoming near compound noun/adjective forms of the president.

The local papers often frame the historic unpopularity with US President Obama.

Anonymous said...

Original Mike said...
Didn't Congressional Democrats write ObamaCare?


The distinction, they want you to see is that, "they wrote a good bill, it was those nameless Fed 'B'crats that F'd up the regulations, those evil insurance companies that dropped people, and those greedy Canucks that sabotaged the web site..."

jacksonjay said...


FAUX Noise (2-3 million viewers, 1% of US population) has been too critical of Barry!

The Republican Party (beloved by young people) has sabotaged the ACA! We all know that young folk march in lock step with Boehner!!

His negative approvals are a direct result of FAUX Noise and the powerful Republican propaganda machine!

Sorun said...

To compare Obama poll numbers to Bush numbers, you need to consider the racial loyalty that Obama gets and Bush didn't.

Anonymous said...

"His real sinking in the polls occurred with Katrina, which the media exploited to damage Bush."

Katrina provided the Media opportunities to lie to our face. So does Obamacare. In Katrina, they made up horror stories to damage Bush: 40,000 dead, rapes of little girls in Superdome, shooting from roof tops at rescuers. In Obamacare, they make up stories to save Obama. They succeeded in Katrina because most of the country were not affected and didn't pay much attention. In Obamacare, they fail because everyone and his dog are affected and have to pay attention.

In Katrina, the Media lied. In Obamacare, Obama lies, the Media cover up the lies. The fault is the people's. They don't exercise their rights as free people to seek out the truth, they allow themselves to be manipulated by politicians and the media.

harkin said...

I am so sick of the premise that this is about "liking him", please get off that tired trope that the left uses to smear the right with racism etc.

It's not about liking or disliking him. It's about not trusting him for anything he says.

It's about his policies doing nothing but damaging the country while shifting billion$ from "The America That Works" to the America that doesn't but votes for democrats to keep the freebie train rolling.

It's about his building up of a partisan govt. spying and police state apparatus to crush anyone who dissents.

William said...

This begs the question. The media always favors the Democrats. Sometimes the people believe the media and sometimes they believe their own lying eyes.......Obama is incompetent and clumsy, but he is handsome, personable, and well spoken. When people, especially people in the media, feel good about Obama, they feel good about themselves. They don't want to relinquish that feeling. Obama may yet ride this out.

David said...

This won't help:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, who has portrayed himself as surprised by technical problems with the government's new health care website, was briefed earlier this year on a consultant's report that warned of possible widespread site failures, the White House said on Tuesday.

There have been weeks of questions about whether Obama understood the depth of the site's problems and let it open anyway, or simply "did not have enough awareness" of them, as the president stated at a November 14 news conference.


One hour ago from Reuters.

TosaGuy said...

Existing home sales dropped 3.2 percent in October, the second straight month of declines.

Want to continue to chill the housing market?? -- have continued uncertainty about if people are going to have to find an extra $300/400 a month in higher health insurance premiums. Would like to see auto sale numbers early next year if this massive insurance churn continues.

Dixie_Sugarbaker said...

If the media were after him like they were after Bush, he'd be at 22% or less, right now.

If the media were after him like they were with Bush, he would be in Hawaii right now and Romney would be President.

David said...

TosaGuy said...
Existing home sales dropped 3.2 percent in October, the second straight month of declines.

Want to continue to chill the housing market?? -- have continued uncertainty about if people are going to have to find an extra $300/400 a month in higher health insurance premiums. Would like to see auto sale numbers early next year if this massive insurance churn continues.


At least in the short term, Obamacare does not change the overall cost of health care for the country. It just reallocates it. So you might argue that the net impact is zero.

However, if the reallocation is from institutions (governments, employers, insurance companies, hospitals treating indigents) to individuals the immediate impact on the economy could be quite negative. The institutions have broader, deeper and more flexible sources of funding than the individuals and can therefore mitigate the effect more easily.

Do they have any idea how this will play out? I doubt it.

Insufficiently Sensitive said...

he is handsome, personable, and well spoken.

He is not at all well spoken on the rare occasions when an interviewer penetrates his sycophant-media screen and pins his ears back with a real question. His hemming and hawing is worse than most previous Presidents - largely because most of them had some executive experience and knew how to take decisions.

Rusty said...


At least in the short term, Obamacare does not change the overall cost of health care for the country. It just reallocates it. So you might argue that the net impact is zero.

So far the net impact has been devastating.
People dropped and the majority of earners working part time. That alone makes one hell if a negative economic impact.

alan markus said...

@ Carnifex

If he had done his job in the first place, none of this would be happening. Ergo, the Chief Traitor Roberts is a fool.

I usually don't subscribe to conspiracy theories, but in this case I find it plausible that "they" threatened to make public a personal family situation. He and his wife adopted two children from a "Latin American" country, but the kids are very Caucasion looking and blonde (I am the parent of a child adopted from a Latin American country - not white and blonde). It was a private adoption, and the rumor is that they came are of Irish descent (Roberts are devout Catholics)and were adopted via a Latin American country because Ireland forbids private adoptions.

Some issues that would raise are Bush overlooking that (treating it as a private family matter)in the vetting process, and Roberts being disbarred from the legal profession for an ethical violation of international law.

Again, it's unproven, but certainly using personal information against opponents has been the "Obama way" in the past.

Curious George said...

In response to an inquiry to what was more important than a POTUS visit to Gettysburg for the 150th Anniversary Dan Pfeiffer tweated "Oh, I don't know, there's this whole website thing that someone suggested might destroy the Dem Party"

This is why Obama's numbers are and should be in the shitter. The need to fix healthcare.gov is to mitigate damage to him and the Democratic party. The fact that millions of American's are being hurt...meh.

Fuck these people. They are evil.


TosaGuy said...

"At least in the short term, Obamacare does not change the overall cost of health care for the country. It just reallocates it. So you might argue that the net impact is zero."

The folks in the big fat middle with the income to buy cars and houses are those who are in danger of $300/400 per month insurance hike. You don't yank that much out of one's monthly budget without it having an impact on what they do with their lives.

William said...

Given the choice between 100% participation in a shabby, second rate health care system or an 85% participation in a first rate system, most Democrats would choose the former. But that's not how this choice is playing out. The Democrats will probably succeed in degrading our health care system, but it's iffy that they succeed in increasing the number of people actually insured.....I wonder at what point, if any, they will admit to screwing this up.

William said...

The fact that so many Democrats believe that Cuba has a health care system superior to ours does not inspire me with hope that this will happen any time soon.

Zachary Sire said...

"...with Katrina, which the media exploited to damage Bush."

Oh I know. The media shouldn't have made a big deal about the deaths of thousands of US citizens and the entire destruction of a major American city.

Curious George said...

Zachary Sire said...
"...with Katrina, which the media exploited to damage Bush."

Oh I know. The media shouldn't have made a big deal about the deaths of thousands of US citizens and the entire destruction of a major American city.

Your talking about Detroit...right? Right? RIGHT?

Hagar said...

But, Boooosh!!!

Gahrie said...

The media shouldn't have made a big deal about the deaths of thousands of US citizens and the entire destruction of a major American city.

Get back to me when they start covering what the Democratic Party has done, and is doing, to Chicago and detroit for the last fifty years.


Not only did Bush not cause Katrina, most of the fuck ups were done by Democratic politicians at the state and local level.

Michael said...

The coolest thing about Bush, taking everything into consideration, was his dreaming up Katrina three years before it hit landfall and then not preparing for there to be no deaths and no damage. That Bush. So powerful but so dumb.

Drago said...

ZS: "Oh I know. The media shouldn't have made a big deal about the deaths of thousands of US citizens and the entire destruction of a major American city."

It was such a big deal that media could not ignore it!!!.......but those pesky details about democrat governor and mayoral incompetence.......no reason to talk about that.

No sirree.

No reason at all.

Yes, Zachary Sire is on fire here...

Drago said...

Michael: "That Bush. So powerful but so dumb."

It has become received wisdom on the left that Bush personally sabotaged the levees.

Personally.

In the same way that Robert Cook shows up to accuse Reagan of personally conspiring with the Iranians to hold Americans hostage.

But hey, it's time to discuss all those wacky right wing conspiracy theories!

lemondog said...

TIIIIIIIIIIIIMBERRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Original Mike said...

"...he is handsome, personable, and well spoken."

Not to mention clean.

Hagar said...

But Michelle says he smells bad.

Alex said...

INGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Craig said...

He'll have clear majorities in both the House and the Senate for the last two years of his term which he'll use for a massive overhaul of the immigration system.

jr565 said...

He got through an entire term and got reelected despite no economic recovery because of media handling, and not holding him to account.

jr565 said...

Michael wrote:

The coolest thing about Bush, taking everything into consideration, was his dreaming up Katrina three years before it hit landfall and then not preparing for there to be no deaths and no damage. That Bush. So powerful but so dumb.


Rove directed the hurricane so it went right into NO.

jr565 said...

That should say :
Rove directed the hurricane so it went right into NO because Bush hates black people.
They were stuck in the flooded city not because that's what happens if you don't get out when you're told to and you now have to be rescued en masse. No, they were stuck in the city because Bush sat on his hands because they were black people.
They had to resort to cannibalism. Babies were being raped in the super dome! All because of BUSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -(raising fist to the heavens)
Bush also directed the media to highlight the black people who were looting as opposed to the non black people looting, because as we all know Bush and the media were really close and he could direct them to make racist stories that specifically target black people. I have it on good authority that the media actually was going to run with pictures of white people looting, but then Bush walked into the newsroom and made them change the photo so that it showed the lone black people who were also looting.
Bush was just that powerful.

jr565 said...

Bush also told the army corp to skimp on the levee construction. When told that it would lead to potential disaster if there was a hurricane Bush said "f them. Its just black people". Of course Bush would have been governor of Texas at the time, but he still had that level of influence.

He also told Ray Nagin to not use any buses in the rescue effort even though they were parked nearby. How did he trick Nagin into not having a sufficient evacuation plan? Jedi mind trick. Bush is just that good.