Hope you had a great Valentine's Day . . . I certainly did!
FINAL COMMENTS (we've beaten this 'horse' to death):
MY PREVIOUS POST: "For my initial comments, I relied on information provided to me by a colleague/friend. Now that I'm looking at the 'raw' data myself (from Gallup and other pollsters), I can see that Reagan's JA ratings slipped below 50% approximately 4 - 4 1/2 years of his 8 year presidency (depending upon which data/pollster is referenced)."
FINAL COMMENT: I obtained this information (via a colleague) from a proprietary website: The Roper Center. If you want to check my (colleague's) facts, you will need to pay the proscribed fee. [FYI: The Roper Center catalogues MANY pollsters, not just Gallup.]
MY PREVIOUS POST: GALLUP is a much different polling organization today than it was in the 1980s. In the 1980s, Gallup was an INDEPENDENT pollster with definite GOP leanings; today, Gallup is 'owned' by CNN/USAToday and definitely reflects the Democrat leanings of its media bosses. In 1980, Gallup surveyed between 1,500 and 3,000 respondents per polling period with a 60%+ response rate; today, Gallup barely manages to survey 1,000 respondents per polling period with a response rate below 30% (and Gallup has the HIGHEST response rate of all the MSM pollsters). And we haven't even addressed the behavior of conservatives vs liberals relative to their willingness to participate in polls nor have we discussed the influence of new technologies. I could go on and on . . . but I won't -- time for me to get back to work!"
FINAL COMMENT: 'nuf said! [FYI: Gallup and Opinion Dynamics were the only two MAJOR polling organizations that completely BLEW their 2004 election predictions -- both organizations predicted a substantial Kerry victory!]
By the way, Opinion Dynamics continues to do the polling for FoxNews. So, no, I don't respect or trust the polling results heralded by FoxNews!! In fact, NONE of the MSM pollsters are currently using valid sampling procedures, even Rasmussen oversamples Democrats by 3-5 points [NOTE: At least Rasmussen uses a consistent, representative weighting procedure.]
The only national pollster to produce DEAD ON results year over year (as verified by tangible election outcomes) is Ed Goeas of the Battleground Poll! [NOTE: Mason Dixon does an excellent job with state polling!]
The rest of these pollsters are generating their current results for 2 reasons only: 1.) to satisfy the leftist objectives of their MSM bosses, and 2.) to embarrass the President/demoralize Republicans (the logical extension of reason #1)!
BOTTOMLINE (again, back to my original point):
At this point in the respective presidencies of Reagan, Clinton and Bush43, Reagan had the lowest average JA rating. In fact, at the end of their respective 8 year terms, Clinton still had a higher average JA rating than Reagan. DOES ANYONE REMEMBER THIS? DOES ANYONE CARE?!
It's what a president DOES with his time in office that counts, not the JA ratings he earns during his tenure.
[NOTE: Unlike those who regularly use Reagan 'rhetoric' (vs actual behavior) to disparage GWB, I cited Reagan's stats not to denigrate him (Reagan), but to provide much needed PERSPECTIVE for those who believe that GWB is the first contemporary president to experience below 50% JA ratings in the face of 24/7 criticism from the leftwing media establishment!]
Now, I'm off to have a GREAT day . . . I hope you experience the same!
Signed up for a free trial to the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research. Not to be confused with Roper Public Affairs, the people who actually take polls. The Roper Center has tracking polls, exit polls, election results and ALL the job approval ratings, for every President going back to FDR. Including the entire list of Reagan's JA ratings. However, until you hit Clinton and Bush43, its primary source of data is from Gallup tracking poll results. Gallup, Harris and Roper were the main pollsters back in the 1980`s. All three did extensive polling, but for whatever reason the data for Harris and Roper isn't available on the Roper Center website. Btw, I also signed up for a free trial at Harris Interactive, but they also don't offer full access to their historic database. Not about to pay $100-$400 an hour for BASIC data that should be available to everyone. So for good or bad, its Gallup, like it or not.
>>>>FINAL COMMENT: 'nuf said! [FYI: Gallup and Opinion Dynamics were the only two MAJOR polling organizations that completely BLEW their 2004 election predictions -- both organizations predicted a substantial Kerry victory!]
We were talking JA ratings, not election predictions. Fact. Wherever pollsters may dwell on the American political spectrum, they should all be viewed with some level of skepticism. Having said that. Fact. When you do look at all the polls today and for the last year, PresBush`s JA ratings are not good. Across the board his JA ratings are poor.
Frankly, I think the best polls come on election day.
When we do look at election day results, we see Reagan had two historic landslide victories that changed America's future for the better. Reagan's bold conservative leadership and American spirit made many young people, who grew up in life long Democrat households, say to themselves, it's okay to switch political party's and become a Republican. Some of those people who did become Republicans because of Reagan, ran for office in the 90`s and gave the GOP control of Congress for the first time in 40 years. Impressive. The GOP needs to get back to its conservative roots of the Reagan Era and the Gingrich years. The Contract With America turned out to be quite a revolutionary proposal for governing America, further advancing the Reagan agenda.
>>>>[NOTE: Unlike those who regularly use Reagan 'rhetoric' (vs actual behavior) to disparage GWB, I cited Reagan's stats not to denigrate him (Reagan), but to provide much needed PERSPECTIVE for those who believe that GWB is the first contemporary president to experience below 50% JA ratings in the face of 24/7 criticism from the leftwing media establishment!]
I don't know of anyone who uses the Reagan legacy, the Reagan record or the Reagan vision, to disparage PresBush. Bush is the current President and is responsible for his own words, actions and behavior, and those of his administration. He is creating his own Presidential record for history.
As I said, your objective in defending Bush43 is admirable, its your approach that is disturbing. In the 1980`s I can remember when polling numbers indicated the American people weren't as supportive of PresReagan as I was. We Reaganites took the good news with the bad news. In the end, we Reaganites were proven right. Reagan was right. You want it both ways. When the polls are up for Bush, you Bushies are happy. When the polls are down for Bush, you whine and make all types of excuses for why Bush`s JA ratings have fallen.
I voted for GWBush twice, believed he was a better man then Gore or Kerry. Still feel that way. Bush has impressed me with his prosecution of the WOT, his judicial picks, his support for right to life issues. While the Bush recrod has been good at times, other times its been downright horrible. His liberal spending habits, expansion of the federal bureaucracy and opposition to immigration reform are the issues that stand out to mainstream conservatives like myself, as not being in the tradition of the Grand Old Party or in the spirit of Reagan. With his track record of the last five years, I sincerely doubt that Bush intends on making serious changes on those issues, in the three years he has left in office. We shall see.
Finally, I think we can honestly change your original remark.
>>>>>>>>I don't deal in "excuses" facts; I deal in "facts" excuses!
Have a nice day.