If you listen to the media’s general narrative lately, you might think that Democrats are abandoning the president in droves as we’re subjected to poll after poll focusing on the president’s job approval, and, more laughably– polls showing that a slight majority think he hasn’t been honest with the American people because the GOP thinks you should be angry over him saying “you can keep your insurance if you like it.” A new standard of honesty and success unseen in modern politics must be paved by the first black president.
But Ed Kilgore took a look at the polling and came to the conclusion that nothing has really changed, remaining relatively stagnant since the government shutdown ended, and reminds us “to chill.”
The latest Gallup weekly average of Obama’s approval ratio is at 41/52, a booming one-and-a-half point deterioration since the shutdown ended.
Looking at the two junctures in terms of internals, Obama’s approval rating among liberal Democrats has gone from 84% to 85% among Liberal Democrats, from 75% to 74% among Moderate Democrats, and from 69% to 62% among Conservative Democrats. His ratings are the same as before among Pure Independents, and actually up four points among Moderate/Liberal Republicans.
He’s polling just fine with Democrats, Liberals, and even conservative Democrats. Conservatives and Republicans, as if they’re not one in the same, still think the president is the worst ever, and want you to believe as much. These are the people who consider Ted Cruz a leader.
A couple of weeks ago, SNL spoofed African American voters in a thinly-veiled racist sketch, mocking black people for basically being ‘mindless supporters’ of the president when everyone else in the world seems to have abandon him. Some conservative degenerates used this racist bit to reinforce their open-prejudices that black people are just ignorant and their opinions don’t really count because President Obama is black, and now the whole world knows it!(Why don’t you get it, black people?!) because SNL made fun of them as a voting block.
I took serious offense to this knowing that approval of the president is much more diverse and rational than the racists and corporate media who give them life would like us to believe.
The media could do a better job of pounding away at Congress’s approval rating, the real story, here– which has sunk to an all-time historical low of 9%. Perhaps they could do a better job of attributing some of the president’s perceived weaknesses as the result of a congress that is trying to drag the whole country down to their petty level.
But that would hurt Republicans’ feelings. John Boehner might cry. Chris Christie might not look as good dressed in Republican red for the 2016 ball. Poor blacks and poor whites might not have anyone there to kick them around anymore, or turn their conventional racist wisdom into policy, respectively. Women might get paid more, or allowed to decide their own reproduction. We might actually elect people who want to get things done for the right reasons without first running it through the vicious and cruel Right wing meat grinder.
My MSN homepage was still running with Bill Clinton’s absurd comments about individual policies as a headline four days after the fact. 60 Minutes had to admit that they’re not really a journalism outlet, but more of a wishing well for right wing crocodile tears. These are just a couple subtle and not-so-subtle examples of the corporate media’s game. There’s a concerted effort to ignore the criminal obstruction by Republican party leaders, and use it as an excuse to hurt the president’s standing in the country.
The polling shows that the president is doing just fine with sane, intuitive, and rational people, which most definitely includes black people. Not something the media is interested in delving into.