George W. Bush makes history...

[Swamp Fox]

The institutional rating is misleading. It's always low. And it was bad under Republicans as well as Democrats. Nothing new there.

If it made sense, you wouldn't have such high reelection rates. When you look at the approval ratings of individual Senators and Representatives, the retention rate makes sense. And the average of those approval rates kicks Bush's ass.

All of the ratings are misleading. Who did they ask, what did they ask. You should know, working in the legal field, about how leading questions and the phrasing of the question can effect the answer. So, why should I believe any statistics?

 

[Dogger]

All of the ratings are misleading. Who did they ask, what did they ask. You should know, working in the legal field, about how leading questions and the phrasing of the question can effect the answer. So, why should I believe any statistics?

Sometimes that's all you have, and you need to make a decision. That's when the raw data is useful. Intellect helps too.

Even if a particular poll has methodology issues, you can examine the numbers over time to analyze trends (assuming methodology is unchanged).

 

[Larkinn]

I'm sure that will drive the approval rating right through the roof.

I doubt it will drive it through the roof, but that should increase it.

One of the major complaints about this Congress is that its a "do-nothing Congress". This bothers people because they want change. Well, considering Democrats have a bare majority and a Republican sitting president who is not afraid to use his veto pen and has been generally hesitant to compromise, its difficult for the Democratic Congress to do much of anything, except stop Republican bills from passing.

Either a Democratic president or an increased majority should help change the situation, and should change the poll numbers as well.

 

[midcan5]

Fear was a factor in the second election but the first one he actually lost. The first was also about single issues and the conservative religious right's power. Got Jimmy Carter elected, something Rove worked hard on. But voters are busy and when something is repeated over and over again it works. Taxes welfare abortion big government regulation separation secular God all big sticks that stick in the mind and work when you can get them on your side.