Reuters: Obama approval rating up to 50%.

[boxman15]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/13/us-usa-campaign-obama-idUSBRE82C1AN20120313

(Reuters) - For the first time since early July, more Americans approve of the job President Barack Obama is doing than disapprove, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll that shows his approval rating now at 50 percent.

The poll, taken March 8-11 on the heels of reports that 227,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy in February, indicates that Obama's rating has risen by 2 percentage points during the past month. The percentage of Americans who disapprove of the Democratic president was 48 percent, down from 49 percent in February.

Some other polls have shown a recent dip in Obama's approval rating, and linked that to rising gasoline prices.

But for most Americans, other economic trends during the past month have been relatively positive. Obama appears to be benefiting from that, and perhaps from a bitter Republican presidential campaign that at times has focused on divisive social issues such as abortion.

SNIP

In a survey of registered voters, Obama led Romney 52 to 41 percent in a head-to-head match-up, nearly double the margin from February. Obama led Santorum 52 to 42 percent, and Gingrich 54 to 37 percent.

I guarantee you will not see this poll all over the evening news and the cable channels. It goes against the "ZOMG GAS PRICES ARE RUINING OBAMA!!!!" meme that has no basis in reality. You won't stop hearing the two outlier CBS News/New York Times and ABC News/Washington Post polls that showed a much closer race and a much more unpopular president. This is what the reality is.

[Logical]

1. How are CBS and NYT rigging polls?

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. they are underrepresenting Dems - see link below - tweeted last night

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=21669

[boxman15]

4. Rigged wasn't the right word, so I changed it. But,

the most recent CBS News/New York Times poll showed Obama with an "all-time low" 41% approval rating and in a virtual tie with Romney. This was surprising at first, but it turns out there were more Republicans polled than their previous poll. This could just be a statistical anomaly or on purpose, I don't know. But that accounts for most (but not all) of the drop.

One thing that bugs me is how the evening news and cable news will pounce on polls that show Obama struggling, but won't mention the same ones like this. One poll in March does not determine an election, but if you're gonna freak out about a low approval rating, why not freak out about a high one?

They seemed to love citing Gallup (who was normally on the lower side when it came to Obama approval ratings, around 43%) until they started showing Obama with a 47-49% approval rating. Now you won't see that at all, but you will see the outlying CBS/NYT poll.

[madokie]

5. Irregardless of the outright lying about the numbers

A couple years ago we were on the poll calling call list as I stated in an earlier post today and this goes on for a while, until I finally called bullshit on a question they were asking me because the way they carefully worded it it could have been construed to mean what they wanted it to mean no matter what I answered. After that i got a huff, a dead line and we haven't been called by any of the poll takers since.

[bluedeminredstate]

3. Tweety cited a poll on H-ball earlier

and he said Obama was at 41% - down 9 points.

He also opined that it was probably gas prices that caused the drop in Obama's numbers. The talking heads have been salivating over this since gas started spiking up months ago.

[boxman15]

6. Which makes no sense

It was an outlier poll caused by overrepresentation of Republicans, and a recent poll (I don't remember where, but it's somewhere on DU) showed only 14% of voters blaming President Obama for high gas prices. I guarantee the vast, vast majority of them were already against Obama to begin with. A majority of voters put the blame where it deserves, on Wall Street speculators and talk of even more war in the Middle East.

This is maddening. Jon Stewart did a bit a while back about how Fox News started freaking out about gas right after the GOP sent out a memo to conservative talking heads. I can't help but wonder if others are in on it, too.

[pinboy3niner]

7. See NRaleighLiberal's link, above

And boxman15's reply. Some results are coming out low for a reason.

[jenmito]

8. I just tweeted this to MSNBC. n/t