By M. Joseph Sheppard
After the undeniable thrashing the Dems took in the midterms, there were some glum faces at MSNBC, and the liberal print/blog media had all the oxygen sucked out of their various rooms. There were no glimmers of hope to point to as the reality of a lame-duck administration and the end of any liberal agenda hit home.
But then, about December 28 (with a really jump-the-gun outlier on December 2: "What mandate? Obama's approval rises as the Republican Congress craters"), President Obama started to get an uptick in the tracking polls, and there were some positive economic reports – especially one of "5% GDP growth."
And, like a burst of sunshine on an otherwise cloudy day, headlines appeared advising that all was for the best for President Obama (not the Dems, mind you) in the best of all possible worlds (with a few minor caveats here and there).
"A good year for Obama, nation’s economy," gushed Tom Keane, first off the mark in the Boston Globe. "Obama's poll bump is a message for Republicans," chided Bill Scher at RCP. "President Obama's merry and bright new year," chirped Lisa Lerer at Bloomberg.
And perhaps the most enthusiastic: "Republicans cringe as Obama's popularity rises to highest in over a year,” from Richard Sobel at the Orlando liberal Examiner.
What caused this huge jump in morale, the seeming parting of the clouds and the golden dawn ahead? Witness the glowing-toothed Obama in New York Magazine's paean by Annie Lowery, "Is it really morning in America?" (yes! they advise).
The answer is a small uptick in Gallup and a ludicrous Rassmussen poll.
On Election Day, President Obama had a 43% disapproval to 51% approval rating at Gallup. It hit 45% to 50% on December 19, and on January 4 it is at 44% to 49%.
It is hard to discern what the left got so exercised about, as the tiny movements of between 1 and 2 points are negligible, margin-of-error straw-clutching. Or was there something more substantial for the MSM to chew on?
Apparently so, given that there are always with us "lies, damned lies, and statistics," and cherry-picking is an art the media class is well associated with. The Gallup poll on December 28 had Obama at 48/48, "his best result since August 2013."
But then, about December 28 (with a really jump-the-gun outlier on December 2: "What mandate? Obama's approval rises as the Republican Congress craters"), President Obama started to get an uptick in the tracking polls, and there were some positive economic reports – especially one of "5% GDP growth."
And, like a burst of sunshine on an otherwise cloudy day, headlines appeared advising that all was for the best for President Obama (not the Dems, mind you) in the best of all possible worlds (with a few minor caveats here and there).
"A good year for Obama, nation’s economy," gushed Tom Keane, first off the mark in the Boston Globe. "Obama's poll bump is a message for Republicans," chided Bill Scher at RCP. "President Obama's merry and bright new year," chirped Lisa Lerer at Bloomberg.
And perhaps the most enthusiastic: "Republicans cringe as Obama's popularity rises to highest in over a year,” from Richard Sobel at the Orlando liberal Examiner.
What caused this huge jump in morale, the seeming parting of the clouds and the golden dawn ahead? Witness the glowing-toothed Obama in New York Magazine's paean by Annie Lowery, "Is it really morning in America?" (yes! they advise).
The answer is a small uptick in Gallup and a ludicrous Rassmussen poll.
On Election Day, President Obama had a 43% disapproval to 51% approval rating at Gallup. It hit 45% to 50% on December 19, and on January 4 it is at 44% to 49%.
It is hard to discern what the left got so exercised about, as the tiny movements of between 1 and 2 points are negligible, margin-of-error straw-clutching. Or was there something more substantial for the MSM to chew on?
That result, plus the CNN poll of December 21, which had a 48/50 result, and the Rassmussen poll (which even Daily Kos ignores) at 51/48 favorable, was enough for the good news-starved leftist media to see Nirvana approaching.
So where are we today? The Real Clear Politics average of all polls has Obama at 44.1 approval to 51.5 disapproval – more or less where he has been for ages (-7.4).
That there might be a polling lift at the feel-good Christmas season, with its concomitant job hiring and thus dip in the unemployment figures, seems to have escaped the left.
What follows for President Obama's polls if the unprecedented 5% GDP growth proves to have been a one-off, if the economy stalls, and seasonal unemployment ticks upward whilst the much-vaunted stock market takes a nose dive can be well imagined. What can't be imagined are any comments from the "Morning in Obama's America" crowd about the vanishing of their brief Camelot.
Update;
The Reuters and Economist polls of the same time, which had a terrible 12- and 8-point deficit, respectively, were, of course, ignored.
So where are we today? The Real Clear Politics average of all polls has Obama at 44.1 approval to 51.5 disapproval – more or less where he has been for ages (-7.4).
Is this straw-clutching something new on behalf of a press that will do anything to prop up the Obama administration? Sadly, no; we've been here before. Here's "Bouncing Back: Obama Shows A Nation On The Upswing, Trolls GOP" from January 2012, and "Barack Obama and his MOJO Are Back on the Upswing" from 2010 as just two examples of the endless stream of puffery that follows from any positive economic news or poll fluctuations.
That there might be a polling lift at the feel-good Christmas season, with its concomitant job hiring and thus dip in the unemployment figures, seems to have escaped the left.
What follows for President Obama's polls if the unprecedented 5% GDP growth proves to have been a one-off, if the economy stalls, and seasonal unemployment ticks upward whilst the much-vaunted stock market takes a nose dive can be well imagined. What can't be imagined are any comments from the "Morning in Obama's America" crowd about the vanishing of their brief Camelot.
Update;
Obama's Approval Rating Back in the Hole
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