I want to believe this, but how does the cited Gallup poll compare to other polls?
As I recall, Gallup was pretty embarrassed by their performance leading up to the election, and outfits like CNS lean toward reporting the results that will please their fans.
Different types of polls. Election polls hinge on the accuracy of the pollster’s turnout model. This is a simple “taking the pulse of the nation” poll.
Maybe I’m reading things wrong, but I think the daily Rasmussen tracking poll is asking about the same thing, and doesn’t show similar results. It is interesting because you can start tracking from December 14 when the Newtown tragedy occurred:
I am sometimes a bit slow on the uptake, but a few days I had a thought … Obama is a really ineffectual President. He was a breath of fresh air after 8 years of Bush’s mumbles, spending, wars, and Patriot Act, he could speak clear sentences even if he uses a teleprompter and has that annoying cadence, and he said a lot more right things than the Republicans’ self-destruct team of McCain, who would have been older than any previous President even on his first day, backed up by a short-term mayor who couldn’t even answer a softball question about what newspapers or magazines she read on a daily basis.
I was actually a bit surprised he didn’t get a higher percentage, but I chalked it up to the country still having a few racists; that must have cost him 5 or 10 points.
But what has he really done? ObamaCare squeaked through by the skin of its teeth; remember, what we got was never intended to be the final bill, it was meant to be the Senate’s version and head to conference where the House’s version would be mainly adopted (or maybe I have it backwards). Obama never actually pushed for any specifc features, just sat back and let Congress wallow in one mistake after another. Obama micromanages drone targeting even more than LBJ and Nixon did in the Vietnam War.
He has done almost nothing else. He doesn’t twist Congress critters’ arms. He doesn’t give rousing speeches imploring real policies. He gives rousing general speeches saying not much at all. He acts as if merely being Deer Leader is good enough, that everything just falls into place. I am reminded of Kaiser Wilhelm II, who thought he was literally God’s gift to mankind, and therefore he did not have to study political problems, because God would not let him make a bad decision. Obama seems to have the same opinion of himself, but somehow thinks that means everyone can just read his mind and instantly fall into line, and when they don’t, he just sits backs and waits because he knows God will oblige him sooner or later.
Look at how he has pontificated about gun control. Has he said much at all about what he wants to happen? Mostly he just gives speeches and expects Congress to do the heavy lifting.
Maybe that is why his disapproval rating has sunk, that the hoplophobes want rousing speeches and arm-twisting, and they just don’t know their man enough to understand he doesn’t do that.
“a softball question about what newspapers or magazines she read on a daily basis”
That’s not a softball, it’s a gotcha: after the answer, the interviewer asks “What did you think of [some detail] in X article?” for which she is prepared; the odds that the interviewee in the middle of a campaign had a chance to read and analyze it are kept deliberately low by the selections made before.
My guess at an analysis would be, that gun owners are not a monolith of political belief, though many are trying to make us into one. But there are a lot of dedicated and serious gun rights advocates who were not all that offended by Obama’s policies and initiatives in his first term. The first time he really offended them in a visceral way was when he finally came out openly for gun control. Where formerly they had expressed “general support” for him, they now reversed their opinion and opposed him for the first time. It was the first time they felt he was goring their personal ox.
Huh. Comments used to format correctly on the iPad, but no the right side is covered by the other blocks of links, etc. Theme tweaking lately?
It’s a bug in the theme I’ve been meaning to fix. If a URL runs off the side of the page it doesn’t deal with it in a productive manner.
I want to believe this, but how does the cited Gallup poll compare to other polls?
As I recall, Gallup was pretty embarrassed by their performance leading up to the election, and outfits like CNS lean toward reporting the results that will please their fans.
Different types of polls. Election polls hinge on the accuracy of the pollster’s turnout model. This is a simple “taking the pulse of the nation” poll.
Maybe I’m reading things wrong, but I think the daily Rasmussen tracking poll is asking about the same thing, and doesn’t show similar results. It is interesting because you can start tracking from December 14 when the Newtown tragedy occurred:
Rasmussen Poll
I am sometimes a bit slow on the uptake, but a few days I had a thought … Obama is a really ineffectual President. He was a breath of fresh air after 8 years of Bush’s mumbles, spending, wars, and Patriot Act, he could speak clear sentences even if he uses a teleprompter and has that annoying cadence, and he said a lot more right things than the Republicans’ self-destruct team of McCain, who would have been older than any previous President even on his first day, backed up by a short-term mayor who couldn’t even answer a softball question about what newspapers or magazines she read on a daily basis.
I was actually a bit surprised he didn’t get a higher percentage, but I chalked it up to the country still having a few racists; that must have cost him 5 or 10 points.
But what has he really done? ObamaCare squeaked through by the skin of its teeth; remember, what we got was never intended to be the final bill, it was meant to be the Senate’s version and head to conference where the House’s version would be mainly adopted (or maybe I have it backwards). Obama never actually pushed for any specifc features, just sat back and let Congress wallow in one mistake after another. Obama micromanages drone targeting even more than LBJ and Nixon did in the Vietnam War.
He has done almost nothing else. He doesn’t twist Congress critters’ arms. He doesn’t give rousing speeches imploring real policies. He gives rousing general speeches saying not much at all. He acts as if merely being Deer Leader is good enough, that everything just falls into place. I am reminded of Kaiser Wilhelm II, who thought he was literally God’s gift to mankind, and therefore he did not have to study political problems, because God would not let him make a bad decision. Obama seems to have the same opinion of himself, but somehow thinks that means everyone can just read his mind and instantly fall into line, and when they don’t, he just sits backs and waits because he knows God will oblige him sooner or later.
Look at how he has pontificated about gun control. Has he said much at all about what he wants to happen? Mostly he just gives speeches and expects Congress to do the heavy lifting.
Maybe that is why his disapproval rating has sunk, that the hoplophobes want rousing speeches and arm-twisting, and they just don’t know their man enough to understand he doesn’t do that.
“a softball question about what newspapers or magazines she read on a daily basis”
That’s not a softball, it’s a gotcha: after the answer, the interviewer asks “What did you think of [some detail] in X article?” for which she is prepared; the odds that the interviewee in the middle of a campaign had a chance to read and analyze it are kept deliberately low by the selections made before.
My guess at an analysis would be, that gun owners are not a monolith of political belief, though many are trying to make us into one. But there are a lot of dedicated and serious gun rights advocates who were not all that offended by Obama’s policies and initiatives in his first term. The first time he really offended them in a visceral way was when he finally came out openly for gun control. Where formerly they had expressed “general support” for him, they now reversed their opinion and opposed him for the first time. It was the first time they felt he was goring their personal ox.
Huh. Comments used to format correctly on the iPad, but no the right side is covered by the other blocks of links, etc. Theme tweaking lately?
It’s a bug in the theme I’ve been meaning to fix. If a URL runs off the side of the page it doesn’t deal with it in a productive manner.
Er, s/no/now/ .
Ok, it seems to be just this post. Curious.