Poll: Republican Party Now Less Popular Than Dick Cheney
Lost in the news yesterday about the polls showing eroding support for Obama’s policies was a funny detail in the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll: The overall popularity of the Republican Party has now dropped below even the abysmal level of approval enjoyed by Dick Cheney.
The poll found that 26% of respondents have a very positive or somewhat positive view of Cheney, up eight points from April. Meanwhile, it found that the GOP overall is viewed very or somewhat positively by only 25%, down four points from April.
Okay, the difference is within the margin of error, making this a statistical tie. But still, this is pretty awful for the GOP, given that for a long time Cheney’s historic unpopularity seemed to define a kind of low-water mark among Republicans.
There a couple of takeaways here. First, it appears that Cheney is doing a better job of making his own case than the current crop of GOP leaders are doing on behalf of the party as a whole, even though he’s no longer in office. And second, it gives the lie to the notion that Cheney’s ongoing media tour is helpful to the GOP overall, as some party leaders have publicly claimed to think. In reality, he only seems to be helping himself.
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Tee hee.
Since the GOP represents virtually zero diversity of ideas, and since Cheney is essentially only talking about one idea, with which the GOP is in agreement, why would there be any difference in their poll results? Personality? Good looks?
Danp, heh. I think it’s time to invite you into the satire/irony contest with jzap and Bernie L.
I buy the idea that Cheney isn’t helping the GOP, but I can’t see that he is helping himself much even though maybe he gets a couple of points of popularity on the GOP. Big deal.
This is my first post, comments – how can I be posting too fast?
Greg~ I assume you have seen this since it is up at TPM? This is kind of interesting…would a journalist be more interested in covering up a story, or tipping off a story than exposing it???
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/06/husband_of_ensigns_girlfriend_to_foxs_kelly_help_m.php
Me too Greg…still getting the posting too fast response…
“In reality, he only seems to be helping himself.”
.
Consequence and intent being, bernie quietly notes, unsamelike.
all, apologies for the posting too fast problem…I’ll redouble efforts to get tech to look at it
“Consequence and intent being, bernie quietly notes, unsamelike.”
You do have a way with words, Bernie.
Here’s a little more on the Ensign story…
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jun/19/we-have-suffered-indescribable-pain/
Momentum being what it is, the GOP is not going to be able to turn things around on a dime. I don’t think they’ve hit bottom yet – I think that’s still coming.
“In reality, he only seems to be helping himself.”
Surely you never thought he intended anything else.
Tena, it ain’t just momentum driving their death spiral, it’s also a complete and utter lack of new ideas; and nothing, and I mean nothing, scares a conservative like a new and unfamiliar idea.
azportsider – I realize that – I know the reasons. All I’m saying is that momentum is now carrying the GOP further into the wilderness. They got themselves on the trail and are keeping themselves there – I’m not saying otherwise. All I’m saying is that even if they totally changed their approach now, it still wouldn’t matter for quite awhile, I don’t think. And they are not about to change things right now. They still think they are right and Americans have just “gone astray” and will come back to them.
Hey guys: really sorry re the “posting to fast” business. we are trying to figure it out and fix it. thanks for your patience.
Rachel
editor, whorunsgov.com
Uh, Greg – I just read something I didn’t know had happened – WaPo fired Froomkin? Froomkin? I’m utterly shocked.
They have apparently adopted a policy of mutual assured destruction.
“They have apparently adopted a policy of mutual assured destruction.”
The GOP and the WaPo?
LOL
Well firing Froomkin does not strike me as real smart, frankly.
The GOP came to power by espousing a set of principles based on common sense logic that appealed to many independents. Then they abandoned those principles and have turned off the independents that believed they would actually apply those principles when governing. Now the shoe is about to be on the other foot. The independents are still waiting for some “change we can believe in”. Every day the last line from that song from The Who comes to mind. “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”
I keep hearing how the GOP is in the toilet, yet I also keep hearing how in any particular race, the 2 potential candidates are either neck and neck, or the Republican is ahead.
And unless Obama can get a safe 60 votes in the Senate, this nation will remain in a bottleneck. Democrats historically defined bipartisan as the 2 sides meeting in the middle. Republicans define bipartisanship as their getting their way almost completely on any bill. Hence, until that safe 60 in the senate, the Republicans, in spite of being in the toilet, are still running things.
This is not the change we voted for last November.
mark~ I think one thing that Dems should do is abandon the whole notion of having to get 60…go ahead…let the R’s filibuster health care, energy, immigration reform…the Dems need to do two things here…they need to start being more vocal about Republican’s (like on the war funding…they should have held a press conference on this and called on R’s to explain why they weren’t supporting the troops (sound familiar)) and they need to call the R’s bluff on the filibuster…I believe Greg has said it before…it’s still as if Dems are afraid to go up against the R’s even though the majority of the public will is behind them on issues…Dems need to be more aggressive at calling out the GOP and GOP hypocrisy (they were for big government spending before they were against it)…not quite sure why they are not doing more of this…it seems odd considering the mandate they were given in the fall.
Jenn D – one has to wonder why the Democrats are so dainty about launching attacks on the GOP. Is it Harry Reid? What is it that keeps the Democrats from standing up and firing back?
Although the republican party is in shambles – I do think the democrats are seriously in trouble in ‘10. The current handling of the economy has been less then stellar.
This is your two years with a majority all the way around. They can do great things, or they can blow it.
Posting items about how unpopular the former VP is .. over and over… is really not news any more. Any news on Al Gore? Dan Quayle? Walter Mondale?
I too like Dick Cheney more now that he’s no longer in a position to actively make the world worse.
That must explain the polling trend.
On Morning Joe the first story was how Cheney was more popular than Nancy Pelosi! Get it: The Speaker is being set up against a guy who is out defending himself because he is afraid of being indicted ( a teeny exag!). Eventually, eventually even Joe had to point out that the Republicans were way down below Cheney. Yet our Democrats treat them as “lethal opponents”. Can we get a free spine transplant operation set up. An the WaPo has become nirvana heaven for the neocons. What say u: plumline?
“Although the republican party is in shambles – I do think the democrats are seriously in trouble in ‘10. The current handling of the economy has been less then stellar.”:
ROFLMAO!
Yeah right.
The repubs are this unpopular, and yet the MSM is nothing but a rethug noise machine (some more than others) and Froomkin gets fired for, well, actually acting like a REAL journalist though they call it “being too liberal”. Funny.
In reality, he only seems to be helping himself.
Wait, wait…let me go put on my “shocked” face….
JennD: thanks for that link , I missed it. I posted a couple of things on Greenwald’s blog today about the Washington Post. But I think the story you linked to is related in an odd way.
I think we are beginning to see newspaper folk begin to visualize a day when a newspaper may no longer employ “journalists”. For many that may sound strange, but follow me here.
A huge portion of a newspapers content is already entertainment, opinion, listings, ads. Why employ reporters? They are expensive. Instead, like Fox News, why not employ “news personalities” and leave the reporting for other outlets. Then, you can use that content when needed.
Isn’t it possible for a daily news to exist without reporters (maybe not one you or I would want to read — but isn’t it already possible?). Between wire services, bloggers, and other sources, it is getting to the point where it is possible for a paper to piece together a “newspaper” without ever directly employing journalists. (In my own mind, this is disgusting — but it explains the moves of many newspaper executives. They look at their newsrooms as “cost centers”, and when they read their own papers they wonder what they are getting for their money. The disconnect between media executives and the day-to-day business of reporting the news has never been wider.)
PGeorge~ Very good commentary on that subject..
Even more hilarious is they are both more popular than Madame Botox.
Ok, it’s time for you bloggers who take these polls from the MSM seriously to get a clue.
I’ll make it simple. They are a FRAUD. The sample is stacked WILDLY in favor of Democrats and the fact they don’t care for the Republican Party doesn’t surprise me. In the newest NYTimes/CBS Poll, the raw numbers actually had 34% Democrats and 32% Republicans. But after they “weighted” the poll, a 2 point Democrat advantage became a 14 point advantage, just enough to give Obama his bogus 63% approval rating.
So don’t quote these BS polls and pretend to be giving honest, intelligent commentary.
@Tena -
Unemployment to hit 11%, a VP who says the admin ‘guessed wrong’ on the stimulus – ongoing bungled BK’s in Detroit – it goes on and on and on. Wait until with new taxes.
You show me the economic succuss story & turn-around. In 2010 – “it’s the economy, stupid” is going to make a huge comeback.
Good speeches do not shorten the unemployment roles & they don’t create jobs. There is a serious vulnerability here on the part of the Democratic party – and unless they recognize it – they are going to lose. The days of passing blame on the previous administration stopped with the stimulus & omnibus bills – this is all Obama’s baby now.
I call it like I see it – and the economy is a huge problem for the party in power today. If you think it’s not, then we live in two different America’s.
@ Bill Mitchell
I haven’t looked at the poll in question, so I won’t comment about it in particular. While I do agree that many polls are suspect, if the poll respondents were 32% R, 34% D, that would leave 34% of the sample that didn’t identify as one of those parties, yes?
Without information on how that 34% opined on Obama’s popularity, your assertion that “a 2 point Democrat advantage became a 14 point advantage” is wholly unfounded and, frankly, ludicrous.
More to the point, you seem to be assuming that 100% of D’s like Obama, and 0% of R’s dislike Obama, with everybody else split 50/50. I won’t even comment on the plausibility of that.
At this point, I’m almost willing to take the effort to actually go get the raw numbers instead of just pointing out glaring fallacies in your argument, but I’ve really wasted enough time on this already.
And second, it gives the lie to the notion that Cheney’s ongoing media tour is helpful to the GOP overall, as some party leaders have publicly claimed to thin.
Any reminder of the previous malAdminstration would do that, they were forced into saying he was good for them instead of admitting that having 50% of Team America 2000 reminding those who voted for Obama why they did so in the first place.
Also, Limbaugh is for Cheney, and we’ve already seen what happens to and with those Republicans who don’t defer to the Dark Lord of the EIB network.
It would appear to me that the Republican strategy is to attempt to become just as popular as the Democrats not by improving their own ratings but by throwing as much obstructionism in the way to bring them down to their gutter level. Not exactly a way to build an image and won’t work anyway. If the Dems submit to the pressure it will be a third party that rises to beat them both.
Hm, maybe that’s not such a bad idea!
Greg,
Wasn’t your blatant partisanship and DNC cheerleading supposed to stop when you left TPM?
With any luck, the publicans will be voted into political oblivian for the next 20 years. Most of them are only looters of our country and economy anyway.While their poster boy and mouth piece Lush Limbaugh has become obscenely wealthy, his zombie like followers have become poorer. Old “publican”LOOTERS.
I love the lack of debate on actual policies. I don’t see it as dem/repub – I see a nation in decline – while the politicians whimper, whine & point fingers.
This website helps that along as best it can. Cheney, Freepers, and all that is Democrat is good etc.
The Dems will be vulnerable in 2010 if the economy does not rebound – that is certain.
I hope both the party and the boss continue their glorious path to destiny:
party – to the dustbin of history
Cheney – to the war crime tribunal in Hague
A sympathetic biographer of Cheney, Stephen Hayes, was on one of the Sunday talk shows yesterday. He complained about the fact that the media now refers to Cheney’s recent initiatives starting a “torture” debate.
The last thing the Republicans, Cheney and (apparently) Hayes want is a debate about torture. One about “enhanced interrogation techniques” is just fine. So, how is it again that Cheney’s recent antics help him or his party?
being “within” the margin of error is not a “statistical tie,” despite the nearly universal misuse of a poll’s margin of error in this way.
anywho . . .
Dick Shaney is the most corruptet indivudual in Americal History May He Rott in Hell! He caused America to be unsafe and HATED ALL OVER THE WORLD!
MAY HE ROTT IN HELL!
Dick Cheney did not cause America to be unsafe has you Dems would have everyone believe. Your President BILL CLINTON ignored the intellegence and
threats to this country for many years, maybe to busy defending himself. READ MY LIPS- I DID NOT HAVE *** WITH THAT WOMEN!That scandel and many others took up most of his second term. If you want facts read MY FBI by Louis Freeh, But then again it’s much easier to blame the Republicans for the wasted time Clinton had in the Whitehouse.
Roll on 2010! We are taking our country back.