With no clear narrative from Tuesday’s primary elections, today the political media will churn the numbers of this new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll in hopes of figuring out something about Americans beyond “hoo boy they are so poor and sad.” Obama is somehow not overwhelmingly popular, but he’s still got a 47% approval rating and 46% feeling “positive” about him, as a dude — and his polices are actually more popular than he is. Democrats and Congress are “in trouble,” yet voters prefer Democrats by a double-digit margin over Republicans: 33% to 24%. Now that the BP oil disaster is “better,” Obama’s got a 50% approval rating for his handling of the spill, up from 42% when it’s all we heard about two months ago. Just 32% say the country is “headed in the right direction,” which is evidence of some pretty incredible resilience, considering the Known Fact that the country is actually headed 100% off a cliff into a Lake of Fire. Hurry up and parse the rest of this data so you can feel smart before Sarah Palin twitters another “Muslins smell teh funniez” and just makes you weep again. [NBC/WSJ Survey PDF] - Speaking of unpopular things that just bum the hell out of everybody, Iraq’s “top army officer” says the U.S. military needs to stay put for a little while … another decade sounds good, right? “I would say to politicians: The U.S. army must stay until the Iraqi army is fully ready in 2020.” Uhh. [BBC World Service]
- Long-time Democratic congressman from Illinois and convicted felon Dan Rostenkowski died yesterday, at age 82. Like his cohort-in-death Ted Stevens, Rostenkowski was a congressional lifer and very effective at shoveling money to his constituents and himself. He was a crook and a jailbird, and now he’s dead. What does it say about America when every political obituary is a rap sheet? [Sun Times/Christian Science Monitor]
Despite Nation’s Sadness, Voters Approve of Democrats 33% To GOP’s 24%
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So Blago is just trying to pad his obituary, I guess.
Fox math: 33% to 24% is a double digit margin of 9%.
At first glance I thought that said “Back Pain”, the pain she gives me is somewhat lower.
When Harry Reid beatifies Ted Stevens, you will be able to pray to him for a federal tax refund.
How did the Professional Left do in these sad, stupid polls?
[re=637201]Cape Clod[/re]: Er..well .09%?
Well, let’s see: “The man on the street is divided, because we’re a divided nation, and President Obama has been a divisive figure.” There, right wing media: I’ve written your articles for you.
The truth, of course, is that no one is ASKING people how they feel about banks, how people feel about corporations, how people feel about monetary policy, how people feel about state government cuts, and no one is asking people whether they would prefer an increase in *income* tax over a cut in social services.
Those are detailed questions, and “America is not smarter than a fifth grader,” according to Fox.
But Rosty brought home the bacon, so save it.
Don’t famous person deaths come in 3s? Who will be the third politician to kick the bucket this week?
193% It’s too early for that graphic. My head hurts.
Rostenkowski once explained: the internet is a series of interconnected muslins, which is why we must monitor it with techno-Jesus, for freedom pie and children, amen.
So Roly Poly is going to be the next GOP Preznit? Unless they come up of somebody from (is it?) right field, I don’t see any other choices. Mittens is Mormahammedan, underwear included, and Palin is impossible. CAN YOU SEE THE FAT MAN DANCING?
What about the other 43% of voters? Maybe they’re split between approval of the Socialist Party and the Connecticut for Lieberman Party.
The 24% who have positive feelings about the Republican Party is the lowest in the history of the poll, but that probably has something to do with the fact that 30% have positive feelings about the Tea Party Movement. I guess there are a fair number of tea partiers who’d prefer to have their own party?
…and, also, the shit is going to hit the fan in Iraq, 2012 or 2020, even if Iran doesn’t fill the void…Helllllo, Vietnam!!!….wy wife, the shit, sez it’s too early to start drinking, so my mind is all full of “well, then, why doesn’t Isreality just bomb the Iraq back to the dark ages, if they’re so BFF with us, and besides, the Iranians would actually thank them and have some other country to occupy their minds with for awhile…” Pleeze, honey! You see where this is leading to…oh why can’t I be a professional leftist and get those good drugs???…Egypt? Where is that again?…
[re=637220]Toomush Infermashun[/re]: At least since 1968, the GOP nomination has always gone to the establishment candidate, the one who everyone expected to win at the start; but for 2012, there really isn’t anyone in that role. Of the likely candidates, I kind of expect that Huck and Palin may split the crazy vote, while Romney flounders due to his Mormonism, allowing the bridge-losing Gov to get through by default.
This is good news for John McCain.
Who was it who said the American public has the attention span and memory function of a gnat?
I forget.
Does that graphic mean that if 210% of Americans were to vote it would be a 3 way tie for first?
[re=637211]Mild Midwesterner[/re]: Dick Cheney is already dead by any human standard.
[re=637201]Cape Clod[/re]: Yes, but 33 is something like 40% more than 24, so thats kinda like a double-digit “margin,” if you cross your fingers behind your back and pretend the word “margin” means something different from what it means. Which is GOP SOP, anyway, with various words.
[re=637227]JMP[/re]: I think Romney’s long-standing love of socialism is what will stop him from being President. I mean c’mon, Governor of Taxachusetts, passage of Romneycare, introduction of mandatory fag marriage — teabaggers would sooner eat their own arms than vote for this guy.
Today we are all Johnny Cash, going down, down down, in a burning ring of fire.
Clearly these numbers are based on the American people being ignorant about the GOP really stands for — freedom. The Republicans need more fresh-faces like John Boehner, Newt Gingrich and Karl Rove to hit the campaign trail and let America know what the GOP is all about
[re=637227]JMP[/re]: So FAT CITY?…
“voters prefer Democrats by a double-digit margin over Republicans: 33% to 24%.”
Our Wonkette appears to be using Fox-Math. Last time I checked 33-24 was 9, which is not a double-digit number.
[re=637230]germansteel[/re]: Sorry – did you say something?
It is quite amazing how Obama has managed to hover in the just-below-50-percent approval area forever, despite being a job-killing Muslin communist Black Panther Islamofascist who wants to kill whitey and institute Sharia and gay abortions for all. Especially when you consider that at least a few points of the disapproval comes from the “Professional Left” and angry leftist commenters on non-Wonkette liberal-leaning sites (when they can be bothered to answer the telephone in their marijuana-induced haze, the hippies).
[re=637236]Potater[/re]: But remember, Mittens had a heartfelt and genuine change of mind on health care, gay rights, taxes, and also abortion that just happened to coincidentally coincide with the start of his presidential campaign.
[re=637235]Prommie[/re]: I think what you mean is, “You have math, but I have THE math.”
Techno-Viking needs to contribute an opinion.
Since the beginning Obama’s popularity numbers have tracked Ronald Reagan’s almost exactly. It’s morning in America.
Thanks a lot you people who pointed out Ken’s math mistake. Now he’s turned off the comments on all the other threads.
He’s already turned off ten of the nine threads, which is close to one in three.
The bad news is only .0037% are enthusastic enough to vote. So the end result is that six teabaggers and an old lady who’s voted in every election since Truman because of “civic duty” will bethe ones who decide who governs the nation between 2010 and 2012.
[re=637233]Potater[/re]: Dick Cheney and human standard? Where is the connection?
Who answers the phone for these polls? If the number that pops up on my cell isn’t one of the ten people I have on speed dial, I turn off the ringer and forget to turn it back on the rest of the day.
[re=637220]Toomush Infermashun[/re]: Watch out for the Dark Horse, Fat Fuck Chris Christie!
[re=637269]Serolf Divad[/re]: Thankfully, that’s my mother, the raging liberal.
[re=637230]germansteel[/re]: I wanted to reply to your post, but I don’t remember what you were talking about.
[re=637201]Cape Clod[/re]: Close enuf!
Aug 3rd’s primary in Missouri had 24% voter turnout with turnout in Kansas City and St. Louis in the low teens, but yet the GOP pundits over the last weekend were quick to point out that 71% voted for the measure that rejected part of the federal health care reform act.
It’s all in the spin.
[re=637254]SeattleJoe[/re]: Perhaps so, but one important different between St. Ronnie’s polling and Obama’s leaped out at me: The note that the president’s policies were more popular than he is himself. In contrast, the Gypper was always more popular than his policies of taxing waitress’ tips, declaring ketchup a vegetable, waging war on Nicaragua, and selling weapons to Iran in order to fund same.
How can it be that someone who can get a jerb at an actual teevee network does not understand what pie charts are for? And does the header mean that we are supposed to interpret the chart as saying that, e.g., 70% of GOP Candidates back Palin? Ah, fuck it.
So the “top army guy” in Iraq holds the rank of Lieutenant General? This is the finest example of military grade-modesty I believe I’ve ever seen. Although perhaps they just haven’t been able to figure out how to fit a general’s worth of braid onto the epaulets (hint: double-decker).
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