On Inauguration Eve, CBS Stresses Bush's Approval Below Nixon's(Dems Delay Rice Confirmation Vote)

MRC ^ | Thursday January 20, 2005 | BrentBaker,Brad Wilmouth

[fight_truth_decay]

On the eve of President George W. Bush's second inauguration, the CBS Evening News brought up Richard Nixon in stressing Bush's comparatively low approval rating of 49 percent in a new CBS News/New York Times poll. John Roberts asked and answered: "What did Presidents Clinton, Reagan, Eisenhower, even Nixon, all have in common? A higher approval rating on the eve of their second inauguration than President George W. Bush." As Roberts spoke, viewers saw a screen with pictures of all five Presidents with their approval rating at the start of their second term listed below their photo. Referring to Condoleezza Rice's admission some bad decisions were made on Iraq, Roberts trumpeted how "the President's nominee for top diplomat did offer a rare moment of candor today."

Dan Rather set up the January 19 story: "President Bush is getting lower marks these days from the American public about his handling of Iraq. In a new CBS News/New York Times poll, 40 percent approve of his Iraq policy, 55 percent disapprove. CBS's John Roberts reports that's dragging down the President's overall job performance rating."

Roberts elaborated, as corrected against the closed-captioning by the MRC's Brad Wilmouth: "What did Presidents Clinton, Reagan, Eisenhower, even Nixon, all have in common? A higher approval rating on the eve of their second inauguration than President George W. Bush. [On screen, beneath photos of each President, his approval rating at the start of his second term. Clinton: 60%, Reagan: 62%, Eisenhower: 73%, Nixon: 51% and Bush: 49%] It will be a challenging second term for the President. The majority of Americans are optimistic about the next four years, but they still think the country's on the wrong track. And while President Bush will appeal for unity in his inaugural address-"

George W. Bush: "By uniting we can get a lot done."

Roberts: "-Americans are skeptical. Slightly more believe he'll divide rather than unite the nation."

Bush: "The crisis is now."

Roberts relayed findings, with the numbers on screen: "There's good and bad news on Social Security. The majority of Americans do believe Social Security won't be there for them [54 percent], and half say there is a crisis [50 percent]. But half also say the President's plan for private accounts is a bad idea. The numbers are worse [70 percent] if it means a cut in promised benefits. And President Bush still has problems on Iraq. Many people said the elections should go ahead [49 percent], but the majority don't believe it's safe enough for Iraqis to vote [65 percent]. They also say it's not possible to create a stable democracy there [52 percent]. And while the President's nominee for top diplomat did offer a rare moment of candor today-"

Condoleezza Rice, at hearing: "We've made a lot of decisions in this period of time. Some of them have been good, some of them have not been good. Some of them have been bad decisions, I'm sure."

Roberts: "-the majority think President Bush is making things in Iraq sound better than they are [55 percent], a point driven home at Condoleezza Rice's confirmation hearings."

Senator Joseph Biden, (D-DE): "As my mother would say, 'God love ya, please do me a favor: Start to tell the whole deal.' And for God's sake, don't listen to Rumsfeld. He doesn't know what in the Hell he's talking about on this."

Roberts: "And in a sign that the Democrats may resist the President's call for unity, today they said they're going to delay the confirmation vote for Condoleezza Rice, scheduled for tomorrow, until next week. The White House shot back the Democrats are putting politics ahead of national security. Welcome to the second term."

For the CBSNews.com rundown of the poll: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/01/19/opinion/polls/main667937.shtml

[fight_truth_decay]

The New York Times/CBS News Poll, taken in mid-to late October 2004...Poll in the days leading up to the election ..." more Americans (55 percent) said they thought the country was headed in the wrong direction than those who said it was headed in the right one, and fewer than half of Americans polled (49 percent) said that they approved of the Presidents performance in office. More disapproved than approved of the Presidents handling of foreign policy (49 percent to 45 percent) and of the economy (51 percent to 43 percent). Finally more Americans disapproved than approved of the Presidents handling of Iraq (50 percent to 45 percent), his most important foreign policy, and, perhaps most strikingly, more than two Americans in three told pollsters that Mr. Bushs tax cuts,his signal domestic accomplishment??had either been bad for the economy (17 percent) or had not made much difference (51 percent). But Bush Won! So that speaks for the credibility of the beforementioned Poll.

[5]http://en.icxo.com/htmlnews/2004/12/31/7353.htm

The CBSNEWS/NEWYORKTIMES POLL never changes. Would one expect any other outcome in polling results from this well documented "liberal biased" news organization?

[Mr. K]

THERE IS A NEWS STORY IN THE BLATANT MEDIA BIAS BEING SHOWN TODAY

WHERE ARE YOU FOX?

[evad]

NY Times/CBS..

deception and lying..

It's what they do..
it's ALL they do..
and they won't stop..
EVER!!

[My2Cents]

Roberts: "-Americans are skeptical. Slightly more believe he'll divide rather than unite the nation."

Correction: The ones dividing the nation are the left, and particularly the news media, John "Hairblow Boy" Roberts included.

[mammer]

What does NBC<ABC<FOX have in common...higher ratings than CBS

[sanjacjake]

The BS in CBS..is appropriate. The C ..means Comedy.
they would do better to forget news rporting and become
a Comedy Channel....I just laugh at their stupid
reporting and their dumb reporters... Jake

[G.Mason]

Other than Clintoon, the presidents mentioned are all dead and have zero ratings, and I'm not so sure about Clintoon.

President Bush seems to be doing excellent!

[blue-duncan]

You forgot the "dead" CBS rating; DEAD LAST!!!

[Prime Choice]

CBS can't grok that Bush's "approval rating" was heard loud and clear on November 2nd, 2004. LOL!

[My2Cents]

That needs to be pointed out: CBS says Bush's popularity is "low" (still above 50%) as he starts his second term, but CBS's popularity is dead last among the news networks.

[FDNYRHEROES]

Rush has an audio-montage which reveals the MSM's new mantra is "hubris". Expect to hear this non-stop from them this second term...

[Cicero]

The truth is, Nixon was a highly popular and effective president. I don't approve of everything he did, but most of my gripes are on the opposite side of what the leftists would criticize.

That does point to what CBS is presumably thinking. Nixon came into his second Inaugural on a wave of popularity and good feeling, but the press killed him dead in fairly short order, because they hated him and hated the thought that he had beaten their pet candidate.

They'll do it again if they can. The question is whether their power to do it has dropped so far that they can't bring it off no matter how hard they try.

Nixon was brought down over a trivial matter that was blown up to gigantic proportions. Even conservatives today tend to think of the man as tainted by Watergate. But what was Watergate? It was 99% a creation by the press, which whipped up mass hysteria against the president and destroyed him.

[G.Mason]

"You forgot the "dead" CBS rating; DEAD LAST!!!"

ROTFLMAO!!

Delicious isn't only an apple. ;)

What a grrrrreat day!

[cvq3842]

Par for the course at CBS.

I just had a horrible thought: the Bush administration is definitely more than half over!

He will get a lot done, I think, but we have to keep working for 2008!

[Blowtorch]

I heard this report on the radio. I would say CBS has reached a new low, but the truth is it's consistent with their recent reporting. Talk about sour, sour grapes. What a bunch of losers.