Apr 23 2009
Conservatives Continue To Drive GOP Into Oblivion
The Democrats are being given a free ride because the ‘true conservative’ opposition is so inept and repulsive there is no respectable or credible check on the Democrats. The far right has destroyed conservatism as defined by Reagan and executed through both Bush presidencies. But it takes real ineptitude of historic proportions to destroy all that good, hard work in only a few short years of mindless madness.
The data is just too strong to dismiss anymore:
As he approaches the 100-day mark of his presidency, Barack Obama’s job approval ratings are higher than those of his most recent predecessors. However, the 44th president is even more distinguished by his strong personal popularity. Fully 73% of Americans – including as many as 46% of Republicans – hold a favorable view of Obama as a person. Fewer people held favorable impressions of George W. Bush (61%) and Bill Clinton (60%) early in their first years.Â
Obama’s job approval stands at 63%, while 26% disapprove of the way he is handling his job as president.Â
Through 100 days of a radical shift to the left the conservatives have been so hot headed and out of whack that America has turned to Obama as the preferred option. The conservative right is out of control, and now openly attacking America and Americans as they sink deeper and deeper into historical oblivion. Remember, to these people George W Bush, John McCain, John Kyl and other GOP leaders were traitors to the cause. They were moderates who created the Gang of 14 (a huge success), the prescription drug option in medicare/medicaid (a huge free market success), the Iraqi Surge (while many on the right bailed) and a chance to reform immigration and win over the most prized segment of the electorate – the rapidly growing hispanic voters (being voters they are Americans and deserve respect and a voice at the table).
After 100 days they have made Obama more popular than when he was elected!
This is how conservatives have screwed up so horribly, repulsed so many and shriveled up into a small band of angry malcontents:
A conservative faction of the Republican National Committee is urging the GOP to take a harder line against both Democrats and wayward Republicans, drafting a resolution to rename the opposition the “Democrat Socialist Party†and moving to rebuke the three Republican senators who supported the stimulus package.Â
At the rate they are going they will push Obama into becoming one of the most popular presidents of modern time. It is not Obama’s gifts pulling this off, it is the massively repulsive nature of conservatives. Obama and the Dems are not succeeding – in fact he is stumbling and failing to make any progress on anything of value. It is simply the conservatives have become so radioactively angry they simply make the Dems look good in comparison.
Gone are the level heads, reasoned policies with broad centrist support, respectful tone. Gone is the shining city on the hill, destroyed and replaced by an angry mob.
The path out of this mess is obvious to everyone not drowning in the fevered swamps of the right:Â
But before they rush to criticize Obama, they need to put their own house in order. The GOP’s moderate wing has declined in recent decades, and the size of the Republican coalition is shrinking.Â
If the Republican Party is to reestablish its dominance in American politics, it must rebuild a national coalition that includes independent and moderate voters and elected officials. In the 1950s and 1960s, Republicans had a robust centrist wing typified by President Dwight Eisenhower, New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller and New Jersey Sen. Clifford Case. Influential think tanks like the Ripon Society proposed moderate policy ideas that proved to be both popular and effective.Â
E.J. Dionne argues in his seminal “Why Americans Hate Politics†that Ripon’s members “were among the first in the 1960s to … show how an all-volunteer Army could work.†They sought “to turn the Republicans’ preference for state and local government into practical programs,†endorsed civil rights, proposed tax credits for the working poor and supported an opening to communist China.
…
Moderates and independent-minded Republicans tend to be harder to find in the House than they were 10 or 20 years ago — whether they support abortion rights or are pro-Big Government. A once-proud moderate tradition has been seriously weakened.Â
The decline of moderate and independent Republicans, according to historian Vincent Cannato of the University of Massachusetts, Boston, “is only part of the problem†confronting Republicans today. Still, “just as Democrats needed to reach out to Blue Dogs†to build their coalition, Cannato said, “Republicans need to find out who the moderates and independents are in the country — and try to figure out how to appeal to them.â€Â
So far the rabid far right tendency to call people traitors and wimps and getting in their face for not bowing down to their huge egos has not been attracting much support. Gee, wonder why?
That Pew poll of adults sure does have some strange sampling sizes of R/D/I.
I don’t know. It’s hard to say with polls anymore. Rasmussen had a report just yesterday that Obama had dropped to his lowest level yet (54%).
I guess we can all just pick the poll we like.
Good God AJ, look at the internals of some of these polls.
I have faith in Rasmussens because there have actually been elections to verify their results. And right now Obama is at 55% approval, 45% disapproval.
This poll was a joke and had a margin of error of about 8%. I am no far right person, far from it. but I think you are pushing this whole bad conservative thing too far.
I have never seen any president confronted with hundreds of thousands of people in the streets demonstrating against his policies in the first 100 days he is in office.
Here are the demographics:
Group
Sample Size
Plus or minus…
Total sample
1,507
3.0 percentage points
Form 1
742
4.0 percentage points
Form 2
765
4.0 percentage points
Republicans
377
6.0 percentage points
Democrats
476
5.0 percentage points
Independents
568
5.0 percentage points
*******
And keep in mind that personal favorability is not the same thing as approval. Bush maintained higher personal numbers than job approval numbers in his second term. This just means that people like the guy. It does not mean they approve of his job performance.
But it will take time to see where this goes. Bush’s numbers were high for a long time.
And they did the poll in both English and Spanish, which makes you wonder just who they were talking to.
Just saw over at HotAir showing that the toughest Republican to run against Obama is Huck.
What’s up with that? If this poll is true, then this poll is contradictory to the one above.
I don’t for once believe it…not especially with 1 million attending 1000 tea parties. But let’s see how these tea parties can hold up!
Public Policy Polling just came out with a poll today that agrees with Rasmussen:
53% favorability for Obama
The interesting thing about that poll is it also asked about potential 2012 races of top GOP against Obama. Huckabee was at the top (losing to Obama at the same numbers McCain did). Palin didn’t look good in this poll.
http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2009/04/2012-president-survey.html
Come to think of it, AJ, I think I saw some recent polling that Michigan is ready to kick out their Dem Governor, and Virginia looks good for the Republican candidate for Governor. Clearly, some Republicans must be doing something right.
I suppose it depends on whose polls you read. Rasmussen shows continued trend of erosion of “Strongly Support”. The overall support number is back to 55, up one point from 54 which was the lowest yet.
And Obama’s approval rating is still lower than Bush’s was in his first term in any apples/apples poll. Polls that over sample Democrats double-digits don’t count.
Also, polls conducted in Spanish were likely not talking to voters. If you are eligible to vote, you have to demonstrate competence in English, there is no reason to use Spanish if you are contacting voters.
There is an AP poll that agrees with PEW
Americans are “High on Obama”
http://sweetness-light.com/archive/ap-americans-are-high-on-obama
… most Americans consider their new president to be a strong, ethical and empathetic leader who is working to change Washington.
The percentage of Americans saying the country is headed in the right direction rose to 48 percent
PARTY ID WITH LEANERS:
Democrats 46%
Republicans 28%
Independents 26%
Most polls show that most people couldn’t name the President if you had a reward for knowing.
Do a man on the street in NY city and 9 out of 10 can’t name the vice president. I haven’t seen one lately but I’ll bet 50% still think George Bush is president.
Probably 75% of the people in the country don’t even watch the news, they rely on what their friends say, who also doesn’t watch the news, they just heard that what’s his name is doing a good job.
Yes, people that read this blog probably know what’s going on, see if you can get Obama a 60% favorable rating from your readers. See what percentage of your readers think the country is heading in the right direction. You’re talking ‘informed’ people here. You’ve probably got 5 readers that would give him a good rating, and that includes conman and GuyF.
It goes without saying that I’m not a large believer in polls that sample selected people. First off, they probably have to call 5000 people to get 1500 to even respond. Those other 3500 that don’t respond are probably too disgusted. They feel like nobody is listening. The people that are agreeable to giving an opinion are those that are enthusiastic about the admin.
So according to my assumption, 3500 don’t know or care, 60% of 1500, or 900, are enthusiastic and think he’s great, that’s breaks down to about 18% true enthusiastic rating.
Now I’m sure some won’t agree, but I think my poll and assumptions are about as valid as some of those I read.
Oh, and I meant to say: two titles of posts out of the last three:
Conservatives Continue To Drive GOP Into Oblivion
Democrats Had Their Chance – Muffed It!
So the Dems have blown it and the Repubs have blown it, who’s left?
I would agree that some people on the right simply hate too many people, but then again hating certainly did not hurt the Democrats did it? Treating Bush like Hitler did not make them too extreme. It is not the right that is making Obama popular, it is too early to even know if Obama will be popular. In the long run it may have more to do with events, things he does not even have any control over.
If there had not been a 9/11 attack on this country and if there had not been a Katrina, imagine how different things might have been for the last president.
Frogg:
AP? Maybe. According to RCP the right track wrong track numbers have the people who think the country is going in the right track at 36.6%.
Even if it is 48% it is not a strong endorsement of Democratic leadership. I honestly do not know what it would take to get a majority of people in this country agreeing on the right direction.
And Democrats do not outnumber Republicans that much. The difference is not 18%. It is more like 7%.
Miranda rights for “terrorists”; but, not for citizens? But, not to worry. PEW says we have “nothing but love” for “Dear Leader”, right?
—————–
Obama legal team wants defendants’ rights limited
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gsdBeBfQ1PJTCFWgQGQw0vp6U30QD97OGFSO0
By MARK SHERMAN – 3 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is asking the Supreme Court to overrule long-standing law that stops police from initiating questions unless a defendant’s lawyer is present, another stark example of the White House seeking to limit rather than expand rights.
I think the polling companies (san Rasmussen) are going out of their way to make sure their samples keep giving us the 69%/73% result. Heck – If they called me and asked how I felt about Obama as a person, I would be one of those people in the 73% – but I am one of his worst detractors! I think he is a disaster, but would I be in Michelle’s book club? Maybe.
You guys have done a good job in this thread of discussing what is going on in these polls. My daughter voted for Obama – she is 22 – she called this week to tell me next time, no matter who is running – she won’t vote for O. She was influenced by her ‘sugar high’ buddies at the time, but even the little real news that trickles through to her has made her change her mind.
I think that most people want to give Obama a chance. I also think they feel that he inherited a bad economy and so they are hesitant to blame him for problems, but that will only last so long.
BTW, I saw at Fox that the government is going to release photos of alleged abuse of prisoners.
Somehow I doubt that this is coincidental. The Obama administration fresh from its apology tour of the world now wants to move on to trashing the US military and trying Bush administration lawyers for torture.
The only insight these popularity polls provide is how stubbornly people will stick with their choices even when proven bad. Many people apparently voted for chavez of the north and of course they are smart people so how could they have picked the wrong guy. As dear leader just said americans are arrogant. Classic defensive behavior. Look at the polls of congress—they have a single digit approval rating yet when everyone talks about “their guy”, the ratings shoot up. I wonder what the results would be to the survey question “What percentage of your fellow countrymen are complete jackasses?”
If you want a better measure of how people feel about ol’bama look at the performance of the stock market and the trend in gun sales. Both are better forecasters of how people see the future.
A third party would be a good start though, the conservative faction AJ rails against would have to side with the new moderate party to get anything done and begin to isolate the true loons on the left who have completed the same coup over the democrat party.
KauaiBoy makes a very important point: look at what people do rather than what they say. Unfortunately, what we have is a substantial minority, expressed through the stock market and gun sales, who believe (rightly in my opinion) that Obama and his myrmidons are trying to destroy the United States as the constitutional republic it has been for over 200 years and turn it into some sort of social democratic people’s republic which will ultimately be a tyranny. And, a majority — most of whom do not pay substantial taxes — who are supporting the Obama enterprise because they’re (short term) beneficiaries of the looting of the productive.
I see all this talk about ‘moderation’ – well, horsefeathers! There is no way liberty can compromise with tyranny or the rule of law can compromise with the rule of men.
If by moderation, one means dropping most of the social agenda and concentrating on economic and political liberty, and solid defense, I’m all for it. But, if by moderation you mean compromising on things like nationalization of industries and finance, gun control, health care, political correctness and corruption, no thanks.
It’s unfortunately true that without the social conservatives, the Reagan revolution and the victory in 1994 would not have occurred. Also true that without the evangelicals, Jimmy Carter would not have been elected in 1976. They’re a two edged sword.
I don’t know if you could really put together a moderate party that essentially left all of the ‘social conservative’ questions to the individual states and concentrated on an essentially classical liberal approach to political and economic liberty. I fear not.
Hello,
I would like to talk about the trees and the forest.
Your new president is so very good at getting you to look
away from the thing that should worry you the most.
I know because I watched this policy work in London, so many
times under Tony Blair. It is very simple.
What is the biggest thing that could hurt you that is happening
right now? You could read The London Times on their Page 2.
Pakistan is falling and that is means right now. In a few weeks,
no more, the Taleban and their brothers in the Al-Qaeda will
be in having the nuclear weapons of Pakistan. After that,
you know what will happen in your country and in mine.
And your president wants you to be only concerned with
some officials from your last president. You are all shouting at
each other and you are all very in the passion of this
minute, and that is what your new president wants for you
to do.
For your new president to challenge your cia, that is very
risky for him. I think your new president has a lot of secrets
and can not survive if your cia decides to reveal them and
still he does not take care.
It is the decision of the gambler, in Cuba, in Las Vegas, and
now in the DC, if his plan succeeds it will not matter
what your cia does.
Your president seeks to purchase time, for the fall of Pakistan
to finish, and the nuclear bombs to be under Al-Qaeda.
After that, he will have mostly completed what was his
mission.
And me? I have sold my flat in London. You call
a flat a condo. I will be moving to a smaller town in the
country next week. I used to be a Leftist and a Communist.
I am not so stupid that I would continue to live in London.
That is very not safe any more.