How to Read That Poll in Which Obama Is Seen as the “Worst President”

[DonViejo]

By David Weigel

The conservative side of the media is all twitterpated by the new poll from Quinnipiac, its second in a very long-term survey that asks Americans who the best and worst presidents since World War II are. "A new Quinnipiac survey just dubbed him the worst president in six decades," writes human Drudge link algorithim Paul Bedard. "President Obama has topped predecessor George W. Bush in another poll," reports USA Today, "but not one he would like." It's a perfect news story, one that cheers conservatives and causes panic in the ulcer-prone liberal readership.

Well, it's true. Quinnipiac asked 1,446 registered voters the question. The party breakdown: 26 percent Republican, 31 percent Democratic, 35 percent independent. Two-thirds of the Republicans and one-third of the Democrats called Obama the worst president since World War II. The result: Thirty-three percent of voters say he's the worst, and only 28 percent say George W. Bush is. And 35 percent of voters say Ronald Reagan was the best president. Hence the headline.

On just these narrow questions, Democrats have a unique problem. They like several presidents, and they dislike several. They dilute their votes. So you have 34 percent of Democrats calling Bill Clinton our best-post FDR president, 18 percent saying that of JFK, 18 percent saying that of Barack Obama. But 66 percent of Republicans give the honors to Ronald Reagan. That, plus his support from one-third of independents, rockets him to the top of the poll.

It's a similar picture on the "worst" side. In 2006, George W. Bush easily won the "worst president" poll (34 percent of people gave him the no-prize) because independents had turned against him, and because Democrats overwhelmingly had. But Republicans were split. Overall, 13 percent of voters called Jimmy Carter the worst post-World War II president, and 16 percent said that of Bill Clinton. This year, only 8 percent call Carter the worst, and only 3 percent say that of Clinton. Those voters have learned to loathe Barack Obama.

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http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2014/07/02/how_to_read_that_poll_in_which_obama_is_seen_as_the_worst_president.html?

[JaneyVee]

1. Republicans are dragging down everyones notion

Of government and most people will blame the head of government. Mission accomplished I guess.

[TwilightGardener]

2. Economy still improving, unemployment down, no new wars embroiling our

troops and our budget, no big terror attacks, no big mistakes, really, beyond a rocky rollout of his health law...didn't get his dick sucked by an intern and lied about it, didn't conduct illegal break-ins and resign in disgrace, didn't have a brain full of Alzheimer's swiss-cheese holes...so it's either one of two things: endless propaganda bashing him 24/7 and blaming him for everything bad that pops up in the world (things he couldn't possibly control and that didn't hurt past Presidents), or he's black and all the other Presidents were white guys. That's how I read the poll. It's totally ridiculous.

[Tarheel_Dem]

5. +1

[woo me with science]

3. Americans are expressing DISTRESS that our nation and quality of life are circling the toilet,

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and that we seem to have lost all power to influence anything this government does anymore.

...and the only polls the MSM lets Americans participate in continue to frame the problem as though it were a partisan popularity contest.

Obama in this poll represents a continuation of the corporate purchase of our government away from us.

Virtually all of Bush's policies have been continued and expanded, and we are now looking at the most predatory trade agreements in history, that will essentially constitute a corporate coup of the democratic foundations of this country.

Note that the poll, typical of corporate mainstream media polls, is about Obama the man rather than the policy agenda and the root cause of the problem, the corporate money deluging the system. That invites hyperpartisan outrage and wagon circling, instead of a discussion of the actual problems and what is good for the country.

And that's exactly what the One Percent who own both parties want, in order to keep us mindlessly defending policies that are destroying us.

[Eleanors38]

15. Shave-and-a-hair cut: Two bits.

[Tarheel_Dem]

4. In the short term, the GOP strategy seems to be working. Block everything, and watch the public....

blame the guy at the top. It's devious, it's cynical, and time will tell if it was a brilliant strategic move on their part. One comfort is that damn near every institution is viewed negatively by the American people, and that includes the media, and the current Congress, which I believe is the most unpopular in history.

[TwilightGardener]

6. If Democrats EVER cooperate with a Repub President again, even on

a resolution like naming Oct. 3 to be American Cheese Day, I will quit the party. I will never forget Repub treatment of Obama all these years, and I'll never forgive it.

[Tarheel_Dem]

7. I completely understand the sentiment. But it's the weak kneed lefties that piss me off more.

They started in on this president almost immediately. I remember the POTUS was inaugurated on Jan 20th, 2009, and on Feb 26th, one of DU's beloved icons went after him with her first hitpiece. The guy had been in office all of one month before she attacked, and that has been a trend among the white liberal elite since his first election.

I can ignore the Republicans, because we know exactly where their hatred is coming from, but I will never forgive the so-called professional left for the ferocity and disrespect that they've shown this president.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

8. Ronald Reagan should have faced a firing squad

and I would have gladly paid a pretty sum for the privilege of pissing on his fetid corpse. Any poll that even mentions that piece of fecal material in the same sentence with the words "best President" obviously included the participation of an unusually large number of sociopaths.

[TwilightGardener]

9. Reagan was showing signs of Alzheimer's by his second term.

He didn't know his ass from his elbow by the end. His handlers were the problem, he was just the actor playing the lead role. Like Little Georgie Jr., but better and more likable.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

10. My mom has Alzheimer's, but still knows right from wrong

Her memory is impaired but not her moral compass. We're not talking about the end of Reagan's term. We're talking about the egregious undermining of the democratic electoral process and a plan to finance the murder of thousands of people in Central America. Neither is negligence an excuse, if he didn't bother himself with knowing all the details.

[TwilightGardener]

16. I certainly don't think Reagan was a very moral person, but it's clear he

was terminally befuddled and wasn't running the show as the years went on. Which is why it's humorous to me that anyone ascribes greatness to him.

[Calista241]

11. Bill Clinton was willing to compromise.

And wasn't seen as a die hard liberal and was willing to work with the Reps.

Bill gave up welfare and capital gains taxes, and in return he got a minimum wage increase, passed significant Medicare legislation, created Head Start, built the biggest economic boom in us history, and balanced the fucking budget.

Obama doesn't seem willing to give in on some major issues that the Reps have, so his legislative calendar has gone nowhere. It's going to begin and end with the ACA.

Now, some here might not be willing to sacrifice anything, but the world we're living in is the world we're living in. This kind of compromise is demanded by our system of government. Until that changes, we won't see a purely liberal or purely conservative gov't.

[Jamaal510]

14. Obama

hasn't really been a die-hard liberal, either, and he has also been willing to work across the aisle (sometimes so much that it has upset a few in his own party). I think that the popularity of ex-presidents tends to rise over time, anyway, while incumbents' popularity tends to go down.

[TwilightGardener]

17. Welp, that's bullshit. What "major issue" is Obama not compromising on?

[Jamaal510]

12. So a plurality of

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voters in this poll selected Reagan as our best president? I would like to know what was so good about higher taxes on the poor and drastically decreased taxes on the rich, the escalation to the Cold War, tripling the deficit, and higher unemployment.
I also found it incredible how more people voted Clinton over JFK as the best post-FDR president, according to the poll. They were both good presidents overall IMO, but JFK's economic policy was arguably more friendly towards the working class, while Clinton adopted more of a neo-liberal approach. If I'm correct, JFK also wasn't caught up in any major scandals like Clinton was.
I was a little disappointed with this poll, but not surprised. The popularity of ex-presidents has historically increased regardless of party affiiation, while that of incumbents has historically lowered with time. Even Obama's popularity will go up once he leaves office for a few years. It's like an unwritten rule where the average American doesn't have a long memory span when it comes to politics. The kicker here is that Obama's agenda has been handicapped by Congress thus far.

[Chucky-Doll]

13. Why are people freaking out?

Didn't anybody read what Dave Weigel said? Dave Weigel says the poll is skewed because democrats were divided in this poll, and republicans weren't. And, Dave Weigel is no liberal. Steve Benen points out the same thing at the Maddow Blog. Steve Benen even uses charts to explain how divided democrats slanted the poll results.

"So when we look at the overall results and see Reagan in the #1 slot, it’s the result of a simple dynamic: Democrats split their vote and Republicans didn’t. (Indeed, among all 20th century presidents, there’s really only one president GOP voters celebrate, while Democrats tend to see a variety of presidential heroes.)"

"I put together this chart to highlight a simple truth: Democratic voters again divided their votes, split between Bush and Nixon, while Republican voters overwhelmingly chose Obama. As with Reagan, this partisan slant tilts the overall results."

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-best-and-worst-modern-presidents