Confidence in Obama Lower than Even Nixon at Watergate

American Thinker ^ | 09/30/2010 | bruce Walker

[SeekAndFind]

Gallup is the oldest major polling organization in America.  It has a strong interest in credibility with the public, because if its polls are wrong then its value drops to nothing.  Gallup Polls, by and large, are fairly accurate reflections of what is actually polled.  So when Gallup asks Americans in different states about their ideology, the reported data seems reasonable.  The problem, however, is that unless one looks at the data and not at how Gallup entitles its polls, big stories are lost. 

As one example, Gallup in the last year or so has finally begun asking Americans about their ideological persuasion and reporting the results of those polls.  A close examination of Gallup's reported data shows an absolutely stunning fact.  In the August 14, 2009 poll, conservatives outnumbered liberals in virtually all of the fifty states, even in hotbeds of radicalism like Massachusetts and Vermont.  What was the title of that poll?  "Conservative Label Prevails in South."  On February 3, 2010, Gallup repeated the poll.  The results were the same (every state was more conservative than liberal), but what was the title of that poll?  "Three Deep South States Are Most Conservative" (not something like "Conservatives Still Outnumber Liberals in Every State."  On August 2, 2010, Gallup tested the waters again.  This time, there were more liberals than conservatives in one state, Rhode Island, leading Gallup to give this poll the reasonable title "Wyoming, Mississippi, Utah Rank as Most Conservative States." 

Gallup on August 10, 2010 noted that Republicans had the highest lead this year on the generic congressional ballot.  Gallup missed a huge story:  the Republican lead on the generic ballot was the largest in the lifetime of most Americans.  To its credit, Gallup on August 30, 2010 noted in this poll that the Republican lead on the generic congressional ballot was the greatest in the history of Gallup polling, going back to 1942:  "GOP Takes Unprecedented Lead on Generic Ballot."  What Gallup neglected to mention is that while the ten point lead in the poll released August 30 was the largest ever, the seven point lead on August 10 was also, at that time, the largest lead ever. 

Gallup, again, has missed a big story.  On September 23, 2010 Gallup issued a report with the rather innocuous title: "Americans Trust U.S. More On Foreign Than On Domestic Affairs."   This is vaguely interesting, but hardly startling.  But look more closely at the Gallup graph and something more interesting appears:  our trust in government to handle domestic affairs appears to have dipped to a 13 year low in the latest poll.  A perusal of older Gallup Polls show something very interesting:  On September 18, 2008, Gallup measured the confidence that the American people had in government since before 1973.  In the category of confidence in federal government to handle domestic affairs, the numbers Gallup shows in that poll are lower than at any level since Gallup shows online archival data, which means since at least 1972. 

That means during Watergate, the Energy Crisis of 1973, and the recession of the same period, Americans had more confidence in Richard Nixon to handle domestic affairs than Americans have today in Barack Obama to handle domestic affairs.  The calamitous years of 1973 to 1974, when there were lines to get gasoline (which was suddenly sky high in price), when an American president resigned (preceded by an American vice president resigning), and when the nation dropped into a real economic downturn surely have to rank as the nadir of confidence in government to handle domestic affairs.  During those years, American had a viciously divided government, with partisan Democrats, who controlled both houses of Congress, doing everything possible to create suspicion and rancor towards the Nixon Administration. 

Gallup, curiously, never asked questions of Americans about their confidence in the ability of government to address their problems during the dreadful years of 1979 and 1980, the Carter Malaise, which would be the only comparable period in modern history.  Carter, of course, always had a Democrat Congress, so there were no "Watergate" congressional hearings of his administration.  Barack Obama also has overwhelming majorities in both houses of Congress and a fawning establishment media.  Obama, like Carter, entered office with a huge reservoir of personal goodwill.  Yet Obama has driven confidence that Americans have in the ability of government to address domestic affairs to a forty year, and perhaps historical low. 

There is another point.  Nixon reached that low point after six years in the White House.  Carter reached his Malaise in the second half of his first term (Democrat losses in Carter's 1978 midterm were modest and Carter still retained a fair amount of public confidence.)  What Gallup has exposed in the Obama Administration is a precipitous drop that closely resembles free fall.  A fascinating story, although one that Gallup, trying to conform its articles to conventional establishment opinion, seems to have missed once again.

Bruce Walker is the author of a new book:  Poor Lenin's Almanac: Perverse Leftists Proverbs for Modern Life

[Texas resident]

The msm will never relent in their efforts to prop up this walking trainwreck. They openly campaigned for him and cannot back down now. Plus, they never will admit that they were wrong.
If the msm covered little barry as they did Reagan, he would never even made to the Illinios senate.
Funny, the same media that crowed about how our country has “progressed” by electing a kenyan to the US Senate, then the same msm runs interference for him about that subject.

[November 2010]

I am beginning to suspect that there is such massive voter fraud that we are in a system itself that is fraudulent. If there are more conservatives than liberals in all 50 states . . . it doesn’t compute with actual ballot results. Yet Republican turnout is traditionally higher than Democrat as a percentage. So turnout can’t explain it. If those calling themselves conservatives are registered independent, the swing vote should be going our way even in the NY’s and MA’s. And ideology shouldn’t swing back and forth rapidly.

[Brookhaven]

and the dems are having a difficult time tricking people over the Bush tax cut expiration.

---

Jobs, J-O-B-S, jobs. That’s what people are worried about.

They know raising taxes on anyone is going to eliminate jobs. They may not be sure about how many, but they know it will cause the loss of at least some jobs. In this enviroment, they aren’t interested in a move that will cost even 1 job.

They aren’t interested in fair, they aren’t interested punishing anyone, they aren’t interested in soaking anyone, they are interested in jobs.

And frankly, after we blew almost a trillion dollars on a failed jobs stimulus and then had Obama come back for another 50 billion for a 2nd jobs stimulus, they aren’t buying any line about tax cuts for the rich hurting the deficit.

Jobs is where the country is at, and the Democrats are someplace else.

[Art in Idaho]

His Red Army will be on display in D.C. on Saturday: 400 Leftist organizations involved in One Nation Rally on Saturday, 10.02.10. That should help even more. . .

[reagan_fanatic]

[crosshairs]

I’m confident that Hussein is destroying this country.

[EternalVigilance]

In a sense, Bruce Walker does exactly what he rightly points out that Gallup does: buries the most important story behind a headline about something of lesser importance.

Obama's current political standing with the American people isn't nearly as important as the fact that there are more conservatives than liberals virtually EVERYWHERE in this country.

[Jaded]

I hope November is not too late.

[jmaroneps37]

Will somebody please show this to Rasmussen?

[Gator113]

“... lower than a snake’s belly in a wagon rut.”

I like that one.... will use it now. Thanks.

[UCANSEE2]

Caeser was a statesman,...

Still, they killed him.

[tcrlaf]

“The iPod generation thought it would be “cool” to elect the likes of him. Those idiots will be paying for their mistake for the next 40 years.”

That is so, so very true....
AND IT NEEDS TO BE REPEATED EVERYWHERE

[wideminded]

The author of this article is trying to combine data from two different Gallup articles that cover different periods.

In fact the two articles do not tell you anything about the relative confidence in the president between Obama or Nixon at the time of Watergate.

The presidential approval rating is still much higher for Obama than it was for Nixon at the time of Watergate.

[9YearLurker]

She’s still an Obama voter. Fortunately, many, many others aren’t.