CBS / NYT poll shocker: Kerry supporters disapprove of Bush
Another CBS/NYT poll showing Bush is a big loser, with only 42% approval. But the truth creeps in, several paragraphs down the Times’ article:
Mr. Bush’s approval rating is below the historical pattern for June in the first year of a second term: President Clinton’s stood at 60 percent and President Reagan’s at 59 percent. But that could reflect, in part, the much greater partisan polarization in modern politics, underscored by the 71 percentage point gap between Mr. Bush’s approval rating from Democrats and Republicans in the recent poll.
We all know how to read these op-ed pieces disguised as news stories now, so we won’t belabor the points we’ll mention: (1) the poll’s sample said they voted 38/37 Kerry in 2004 (question 56), so why should we be surprised that Kerry supporters don’t like Bush? (2) the poll substantially undersampled Republicans, who were 28% of respondents versus 37% in the 2004 election; and (3) 20% of the 1111 people sampled either didn’t vote in 2004 or didn’t know who they voted for — who cares what they think, if they even know?
We question the tactical wisdom of the MSM peddling these polls to their readers, only to find that the GOP somehow, mysteriously, keeps on winning elections. It has got to be both demoralizing and confusing for Democrats to think they are ahead, based on these polls, only to lose, without ever getting a clear and true picture of what is actually going on in the hearts and minds of voters. And the days of polls in the MSM having an effect on Republicans went away with the arrival of the New Media. As far as we can tell, the only Republicans whose behavior is changed by these polls are the Lindsey Grahams and Mike DeWines of the world.