New Poll: Obama approval rating in Tennessee… 44%

[aaaaaa5a]

A new poll out today has Obama with a 44% approval rating in the state of Tennessee. This number is unchanged since January.

To provide some perspective to the poll, Senator Lamar Alexander (R) has an approval rating of 56%. Tennessee Senator Bob Corker (R) is at 51%.


Obama beats Romney by 2.3 points

Obama beats Palin by 13.5 points.

Gingrich, Pawlenty and Bachmann were 8.6 to 12.3 points behind the President.



This poll appeared in the Tennessean newspaper this morning. It is a poorly written and biased article (IMHO). The data for the poll was conducted by Vanderbilt University. No cross-tabs were given, which means I have a tendency to throw the poll out. Also, the article did not give the raw numbers on the head to head races between Obama and the GOP field. (Example, was Obama over 50% in any matchup?)


The only news to derive out of this poll/article is that Obama's approval rating of 44% is really pretty good given the terrain that was surveyed. Tennessee will be a non-competitive red state in 2012. So the fact that Obama has a 44% approval rating and at least for the time being, is beating every Republican in the field is a good sign. (Although it clearly will not last.) Obama's 44% approval number here, is really good proof that his 51% approval rating in Texas is very legit, given the more favorable Texan demographics.


Finally, I speak a lot about outliers and why it is important to get a lot of information so that bad data can be weeded out. I find it interesting that a few days ago we had a National poll showing Obama with only a 2 or 3 point lead on Romney, yet he leads Romney in Tennessee by 2 points? Clearly both numbers can't be accurate. And it provides further proof based on all of the data that Obama actually has about a 6-8 point lead over Romney, and carries close to a double digit lead over all other GOP Presidential hopefuls in a National contest.

[bigdarryl]

1. I don't think the President will win Huckleberry Tenn. unfortunately

in 2012.If he did GAME OVER!! he wins in a landslide.

[Harmony Blue]

2. The Tea party is doing a lot of damage in

Tex, Tenn, and Florida. Not matter how grim the job prospects, and unemployment look, the Tea Party's slash with no regard mentality is too real to ignore. The impact of slashing wildly in a visceral manner reinforces how important safety nets are during high unemployment and low job growth.

[DCBob]

3. TN is certainly not going to be competitive but this is very good news..

clearly something is going on in these Red states giving Obama these decent numbers.

[indepat]

4. The good news is Masha Blackburn will probably win re-election in a

landslide of historic proportions: her constituents literally eat up her brand of extreme RW ideology. :patriot:

[DCBob]

5. Yeah, that crazy batshit woman makes Backman look somewhat normal.

if thats possible.

[indepat]

8. Echoes my sentiments to a tee

:thumbsup: :patriot:

[Arkana]

6. Eh, 44% in Tennessee isn't bad--I think that's actually more than he won

in that state in 2008.

[spanone]

7. tennessee has gone from red to fire engine red...

reThug house, congress and governor.....

[aaaaaa5a]

9. I forgot to add in the link to the entire story.

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110619/NEWS/306190050/Obama-holds-lead-over-GOP-hopefuls-Tennessee

[Dawson Leery]

10. Consider, Obama received 40% of the vote in TN.

His approval rating is higher than the percentage of the vote he took in 2008.

Still, unless it's Palin, the GOP should hold Tennessee by 6-10%.

[johnaries]

11. The problem here in TN is the statewide use of DRE's.

They were supposed to be outlawed and replaced by optical scanners, but were allowed to be used in "just one more election". well, surprise, surprise! During that election Republicans somehow swept the state and gained control (after being voted in by the DRE's, of course). Now, they are saying that replacing the DRE's is "too expensive" and trying to scrap the law.

TN is much more purple than people realize. The East tends to be more Conservative, the West more Liberal, and the Middle more Centrist. Also, the more urban areas in and around the 4 major cities tend to be Blue, while the more rural areas tend to be Red.

But it seems that won't matter anymore.

[craigmatic]

12. Approval doesn't neccessarily mean votes.

[Tx4obama]

13. And Obama's approval rating is up to 51% in Texas :)

http://www.politicususa.com/en/obama-texas

http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2011/06/poll-president-obama-now-nearly-as-popular-in-texas-as-gov-rick-perry/

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x690438

p.s. I believe that Texas is no longer a red state - we are PURPLE :)
In the 2008 election Obama received over 3.5 MILLION votes from Texans.
Obama won ALL of our largest cities/counties except for one.
I'm hoping he'll come on back down to Texas and do a bit more campaign than he did in 2008 ;)

[aaaaaa5a]

14. Even if we can't turn Texas in 2012

It will be helpful just having to make the GOP spend money and time there. Could you imagine the President having to defend New York or California? Thats what we are talking about here on the GOP side. This is great news. The GOP voters are older, grayer, and are quickly becoming a minority.


I was reading today where it said FOX news viewers are among the oldest demographic viewers not just in cable news BUT IN ALL OF CABLE. Fox news viewers are on average older than viewers who frequent The Golf Channel and even The History Channel.

[Tx4obama]

15. That probably holds true for right-wing RADIO too.

There's probably a high percentage of the older folks that aren't at work and have time to listen to the GOP crap on the radio all day.