Five Reasons Why That ‘Obama is the Worst President’ Poll is Total Horsesh*t

Posted by | July 3, 2014 10:00 | Filed under: Bob Cesca Contributors Opinion Politics Top Stories

Republish
Reprint


Yesterday, The Daily Banter‘s Tommy Christopher covered a new Quinnipiac Poll showing that a plurality of Americans believe that President Obama is the worst president since World War II. At the risk of sounding like an Obamabot (I’m not, but that won’t prevent trolls from going there), the poll is complete hooey and I don’t mind enumerating exactly why.

1) Americans are trend-a-holics. Right off the bat, these polls, at least when it comes to the current or previous president, are always greatly influenced by popular buzz. Voters overhear cable news people who are desperate for content and therefore concoct dramatic, scandalous narratives every day, and too often mistake these snapshots in outrage as being indicative of broader trends or a lack of success. Rarely is the current president thoughtfully compared and contrasted, beat by beat, with other presidents. Political junkies aside, we too often simply repeat what we hear other people say in passing. For example, the movie Edge of Tomorrow was fantastic compared with most of the other Summer blockbusters, but not many people went to see it because the buzz on the street was that it was a bomb. No one wants to support a bomb, regardless of whether it’s good.

2) How many 19-year-olds know what the hell Gerald Ford did or didn’t do? The most hilarious part of the poll was that Quinnipiac asked 18-29-year-olds about presidents most of whom held office prior to that demographic being born. Yet they rated Johnson, Ford, Nixon and Carter as less “bad” than Obama. Now, sure, a good many voters in this demo might’ve cracked a book about Ford or Nixon at one point or another, but really, how valid are these opinions when it comes to a serious evaluation of every president since 1945, 40 years before the upper end of this age-bracket existed? I mean, 29-year-olds weren’t around during half of Reagan’s presidency. Seriously, I’d like to see the results of a Quinnipiac poll showing the percentage of 19-year-olds who can name one thing Gerald Ford did. One. Bonus points if they can name the years during which he was president.

3) Obama is the worst president, and the fourth best. Lost in all of the news media’s scare-headlines on Wednesday was the fact that, yes, the poll results showed Obama as the worst president, but also the fourth best. In other words, these badly confused poll respondents thought Obama was the worst president and simultaneously better than eight of the other presidents. This is clearly not a serious evaluation of comparative presidential quality. By the way, jumping back to item #2, Millennials thought Bush 41 wasn’t as good as Nixon, which is a highly suspect result. And while we’re here, the demographic group that was alive during most or all of these administrations, ages 65+, believe Obama is the fifth best president. Likewise, they also think he’s the worst. My head hurts… CONTINUE READING

Click here for reuse options!
Copyright 2014 Liberaland
By: Bob Cesca

Bob Cesca is the managing editor at The Daily Banter (www.thedailybanter.com) and a Huffington Post contributor since 2005. He's worked in journalism since 1988 as a print writer/editor, a radio news anchor, a digital media columnist/editor, a book author and blogger. He's the co-host of the Bubble Genius Bob & Chez Show podcast and a Thursday regular on the syndicated Stephanie Miller Show. He's appeared on numerous other radio shows including the John Phillips Show and Geraldo Rivera Show in Los Angeles. Bob has been a commentator/analyst on the BBC (TV and radio), MSNBC, Current TV, CNN and Sky News. Following him on Twitter: @bobcesca_go

64 responses to Five Reasons Why That ‘Obama is the Worst President’ Poll is Total Horsesh*t

  1. Suzanne McFly July 3rd, 2014 at 11:00

    The entire credibility of the poll comes into question when this fact in announced….Obama is the worst president, and the fourth best.

  2. labman57 July 3rd, 2014 at 12:21

    People look more favorably on Bush’s current role as a FORMER POTUS — that is, we tolerate him as a painter of dogs and an outdoorsman. Just keep him out of the White House where the big decisions are made.

    Bottom line — people have short memories, and comparing current poll numbers of an incumbent vs. a former POTUS is meaningless at best.

  3. labman57 July 3rd, 2014 at 12:21

    People look more favorably on Bush’s current role as a FORMER POTUS — that is, we tolerate him as a painter of dogs and an outdoorsman. Just keep him out of the White House where the big decisions are made.

    Bottom line — people have short memories, and comparing current poll numbers of an incumbent vs. a former POTUS is meaningless at best.

  4. Nicholas Russell Harris July 3rd, 2014 at 18:28

    Good damn question

  5. Nomad July 4th, 2014 at 07:21

    I will tell you why I think it is important. The Republican conservatives have been allowed to bend, massage, twist and break history over and over again. Carter was the “weak” president, they’ll tell you, and Reagan was the strong one, the one who single-handedly destroyed the Soviet Empire with a magic incantation at the Berlin wall. In about ten years, you’ll have the Iraq mess on Obama’s watch and George W. Bush and his ragtag group of mercenaries destroying Saddam and liberating the MIddle East. Why should we allow them …. but especially the mainstream media.. to propagate lies for the naive to believe and repeat endlessly? It’s not about being hung up on anything.. it’s about keeping things real.

  6. Nomad July 4th, 2014 at 07:22

    Did I misunderstand when I read that only about 1500 people were surveyed? If that’s true, you can easily find that many people who think Obama is an alien. That doesn’t mean it is true and it doesn’t mean the majority of Americans feel that it is true.

    • crc3 July 4th, 2014 at 10:59

      Correct. Such a small sample doesn’t qualify it for accuracy…

  7. Nomad July 4th, 2014 at 07:22

    Did I misunderstand when I read that only about 1500 people were surveyed? If that’s true, you can easily find that many people who think Obama is an alien. That doesn’t mean it is true and it doesn’t mean the majority of Americans feel that it is true.

    From June 24 – 30, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,446 registered voters nationwide with a margin of error of +/- 2.6 percentage points.

    • crc3 July 4th, 2014 at 10:59

      Correct. Such a small sample doesn’t qualify it for accuracy…

  8. Nomad July 4th, 2014 at 07:24

    I read at one site that people also stated that Romney would have made a… (giggle, giggle) a better.. (he he) president than Obama. Better for whom, is the next question. But fine, let the Republicans run Romney one more time and see what happens. Romney lost because he couldn’t remember anything that he said the day before yesterday.

  9. Nomad July 4th, 2014 at 07:24

    I read at one site that people also stated that Romney would have made a… (giggle, giggle) a better.. (he he) president than Obama. Better for whom, is the next question. But fine, let the Republicans run Romney one more time and see what happens. Romney lost because he couldn’t remember anything that he said the day before yesterday.

  10. Joyce July 4th, 2014 at 14:15

    Sometimes I feel like it’s totally out of our hands. For example, Hoover is not responsible for the Great Depression. It was the aftermath of Harding and Coolidge sucking up to big business and giving them free passes similar to today. However, if you ask most people who’s to blame for the Great Depression, they’ll stick it on the poor sap who was elected after the damage was done. Sound familiar?

    • nogeeksadmin July 4th, 2014 at 17:17

      Hoover may not have been the cause, but he certainly was a hindrance in the early stages of his Presidency. That is the difference between Hoover and Obama. I’d say Obama did a helluva job with the pile of crap he inherited.

1 2

Leave a Reply