VDH Watch
February 6th, 2009 by Nick SaintVictor Davis Hanson, my least favorite human being in the blogosphere, is lying again:
The last two days I got a lot of hysterically angry mail about a rather pedestrian, empirical observation the other day that Obama was in a near-meltdown in his third week of governance. I pointed to Obama’s trashing-then-adopting the Bush security plan (FISA, Patriot Act, renditions, Iraq, sorta of Guantanamo), the serial cabinet appointee implosions, the mockery of our tax laws, the embarrassing provisions of the $1 trillion “stimulus”, the lobbyist exceptions to the no-lobbyist policy, the unfortunate al Arabiya interview, and the McClellanesque performances of Robert Gibbs. But I think, nonetheless, the near-meltdown description is accurate (poll drops suggest as much) and serious. [emphasis added]
If Obama’s drop in the polls is suggesting near-meltdown, it should be commended for its subtlety:
A new CBS News survey out today, detailed in full here, finds that President Obama’s approval rating now stands at 62 percent. Fifteen percent disapprove of the president, while 23 percent have not made a decision.
It is not unusual for a newly-inaugurated president to enjoy a favorable approval rating, though Mr. Obama’s rating two weeks into his presidency exceeds that of his two immediate predecessors.
Both George W. Bush and Bill Clinton had approval ratings of 53 percent around this point in their presidency; George H.W. Bush, with a 61 percent approval rating at this point, nearly matched Mr. Obama.
President Obama is not setting records for popularity, however: John F. Kennedy enjoyed at 72 percent approval rating at this point in his presidency, while Dwight Eisenhower had a 68 percent rating and Jimmy Carter a 66 percent rating.
Nearly all Democrats and most independents approve of the job President Obama is doing, while Republicans are evenly divided.
Would that our economy could meltdown thusly!
