When Did Answering "Fair" Become "Disapproval"?

[louis c]

Zogby polls are quite troublesome for me. They report that Obama's numbers are 49% favorable and 51% unfavorable.

As I look into the break down (I've posted it here) I see that 11% of the respondents answered that Obama was doing a "fair" job. The four answers are Excellent, Good, Fair and Poor. At worst, it should be 49% to 40%. Further down, the same respondents said they were proud that Obama was president by 52% to 39%.

Some here may say "what's the big deal"? Here's the big deal. Right Wing Media, like Fox, Rush and Drudge jump on this as showing the President is falling. In fact, Gallup has the President at 55% to 38% today.

The President is just as popular today as he was on election day (53% to 46%). We need to be more vocal in our support, and in time, I'm sure we will.

Link to Zogby:
http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.cfm?ID=1757

Link to Gallup:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/113980/Gallup-Daily-Obama-Job-Approval.aspx

[Captain Hilts]

1. That's actually standard in polling. It was at my firm. nt

[Lasher]

3. Then it's a standard that needs to be changed.

It's clearly wrong.

[Captain Hilts]

5. But to make valid comparisons to historical data, you keep it as is. Just like a lot of firms ask

"Do you think the country is on the right track or that it has seriously gone off on the wrong track?" still gets asked even though it is not worded well and is not a balanced question because of the word 'seriously'. But firms still ask it in order to be able to compare the responses to those of previous decades.

What Zogby does vis a vis 'fair' is standard practice also.

[Lasher]

7. Yes, that's a good point.

The ability to compare historical data is of critical importance. There should be some way to clean up these poll questions while retaining such capability.

[louis c]

8. Obama will more than split "fair" respondents

IMHO.

a evidenced by the "proud" number further down.

[bluestateguy]

2. To be fair Zogby did the same shit under Bush

"fair" was rated as disapproval.

[Captain Hilts]

6. As it is with nearly all polling firms. nt

[MajorChode]

4. The longer it takes for the economy to recover, the lower his numbers will go

Raygun had shitty approval ratings during the recession in his first term, but when the economy recovered he got all the credit (even though he didn't deserve it).

The bottom line is approval/disapproval ratings are largely based on the economy and people put far too much stock in the president's ability to affect the economy. Fortunately they have short memories. When the economy recovers, so will his approval ratings and if the economy rebounds significantly his ratings could go through the roof.