PrintAugust 30, 2009
The Give-a-Damn Index reaches a new high (updated)
Scott Rasmussen's Daily Presidential Tracking Poll gets a lot of national attention -- as it should -- with the index balancing the strongly approve numbers versus the strongly disapprove numbers. Taken with the three day rolling average concept, an argument could be made that Rasmussen's poll and his index is the best snap shot of informed and engaged Americans at any given time.
Certainly the fact that sometime around July 4th this poll crossed into negative territory and has stayed there is significant. Also important and telling is the fact that the strongly disapprove numbers have hovered around 40% for awhile. This makes sense based on other polls showing that some 40% of Americans are very or somewhat conservative.
The unspoken number however could be the "Give-a-Damn index." To me, that is the total of folks who have a strong opinion one way or the other. Today that number would be an astounding 74%. See excerpts from Rasmussen today:
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 32% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove. That's the highest level of Strong Disapproval yet recorded for this President and it gives Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -10.
The "Give a Damn" Index is up some 10% from several weeks ago, as more people start to tie Obama to his policies -- which have never been popular -- and the reactionary liberal base starts to support their man due to attacks on him from the right. If you see the chart below, you can see clearly that both positives and negatives are rising and have been for a couple months.
The Democrat Congress is not holding up well either. From Rasmussen:
If Americans could vote to keep or replace the entire Congress,57% would throw out all the legislators and start over again. Just 25% would vote to keep the Congress.
And in the softer measure of Presidential approval ratings, Rasmussen has this to say:
Overall, 47% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance. That matches the lowest total approval yet measured for Obama. Fifty-two percent (52%) now disapprove.
Translation: most of the folks who disapprove do so STRONGLY. Approximately 81%. Of those who approved, only some 61% feel strongly about it. This could be part B of the Give a Damn Index. A negative 20.
So today's Give A Damn Metric is this: Part A 74%. Part B: Minus 20%.
Update from Gene Schwimmer:
A couple of interesting developments on President Obama's poll numbers via Rasmussen today. The first is in Obama's Approval Index, where his Strongly Disapprove number hits a new high, 42%.
The second development is the president's Total Approve, which, today, equals his previous low of 47%. Ordinarily, this would be a ho-hum, move-along-folks-nothing-to-see-here moment unlike, say, a drop to a new low. But hidden in this number is a little cruise missile flying just under the radar that may herald that new low, perhaps as soon as tomorrow. Oh, and a chance for American Thinker visitors to speculate.
Take a gander at the table I linked to and you will see Obama's Total Approval at 50% for the preceding three days. And that's an increase from being at 49% for the three consecutive days that preceded those.
And today, a sudden three point drop, from 50%, to 47%.
I won't bore you with the math, but it's virtually certain that for at least one day, Obama was at 42%. Or lower.
A statistical blip? Or did some recent event or events cause Obama's Total Approve to nosedive overnight?
I yield the floor to anyone who cares to speculate.
In other Rasmussen news:
If they could vote to keep or replace the entire Congress, just 25% of voters nationwide would keep the current batch of legislators.A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 57% would vote to replace the entire Congress and start all over again. Eighteen percent (18%) are not sure how they would vote.
No data on how many would vote to kill the entire Congress and not start all over again. But I can guess.
