The BlogGeorge W. Bush Gets Post-Osama Bounce?Is Obama's post-Osama approval rating related to Bush's foreign policy?11:11 AM, May 11, 2011
• By MARK HEMINGWAY
I was a bit surprised this morning to see an AP poll showing the President at a 60 percent approval rating, and the number of Americans saying he should be reelected above 50 percent. Numerous other polls have shown a small post-Osama bounce, but they've also shown his approval on the economy being exceptionally weak. Well, if you suspect there is something off about this poll -- you're right. Jim Geraghty looked at the internals and finds it's pretty skewed:
So the poll isn't terribly reliable regarding Obama's approval ratings. Now Geraghty picks up on one other very interesting nugget buried in the poll -- George W. Bush's approval rating in the poll is at 50 percent, even among a polling sample that favors Democrats by 17 points. I'm not sure what that means exactly, but if Obama's bounce is related to killing bin Laden, Bush's relative popularity suggests it's Obama's continuation of Bush's foreign policy that's popular -- not the foreign policy Obama campaigned on. The Weekly Standard ArchivesBrowse 15 Years of the Weekly Standard |
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