DonBoy
Let me say publicly that DonBoy’s answer exudes a combination of intuitive genius and confidence that make me think DonBoy is going to do big things in his life. -- Steven D. Levitt (Freakonomics blog)
Thursday, August 19, 2004
Kenneth Baer in TAP today:
Like Carter, Bush is an embattled incumbent elected without a mandate and stuck trying to defend a failed presidency. Both presided over an economic downturn. (Granted, Carter’s was more of a total meltdown, but Bush is the first president since Herbert Hoover to preside over a job loss on his watch.) Both contended with an energy crisis. Both were dragged down in a Mesopotamian morass: Bush in Iraq, Carter in Iran. And both faced an electorate that wanted them out of office. In June of 1980, Carter had a dismal 26 percent approval rating, and a Newsweek poll from two weeks ago found that only 43 percent of registered voters want to see Bush re-elected.Wow...I don't even think they make Presidential approval numbers that small any more. A number as low as the high thirties is a disaster.
And having said that, I must recommend this old piece, found in researching the above, which shows that you can be a right-wing loon and still be funny:
A new ABNBCBS-USA Today-CNN-Gallup poll shows President Clinton has achieved a 139 percent approval rating, the White House announced Wednesday.
The poll, which had a three-percent margin of error, "marks the first time in history the entire nation has universally loved their president all to pieces," White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said.