Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Bush Curse?

On our national poll this week Barack Obama's approval rating was the same 52% as last month. The party breakdown was D+5, as opposed to last month's D+6. So all in all, a very similar universe to the August survey.

Despite that there was an 11 point average drop in the net favorability of Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, and Sarah Palin on the poll.

That's pretty weird. But I think I have an idea why. Previously we had asked first about New Gingrich on the poll, then the other three Republicans. But this time Jeb Bush was first up on our poll.

Did respondents being reminded of the Bush brand cause them to rate all the other Republican candidates less favorably? It's entirely possible. If we include Bush in a poll again I might rotate the response options- this just never occurred to me ahead of time.

Maybe Democrats need to morph Bob McDonnell and Chris Christie's faces into George W. Bush next month- although it feels to me like it's time to stop riding the anti-Bush train the truth is that it might be good to remind voters that even if they're not totally thrilled with the leadership now they like it a lot more than they did a year ago.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tom,

Who'd win in a matchup between Palin and Obama if Obama's approval rating was 43-44% and his disapproval around 50% in October of 2012?

Anonymous said...

The cream always rises to the top and Governor Huckabee is definitely the "cream of the presidential crop." Look for his popularity to only grow stronger and stronger and practice now saying "President Huckabee."

Anonymous said...

Mike Huckabee is harly "cream". He really is the "back wash" at the bottom of the barrial.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm....let's think about this. Are you better off today or 2 years ago under Bush? All I can say is when Bush was in office, I never feared losing my job. Now with Obama, I fear every day I am going to get a pink slip.

A recent poll asked who would you rather have for a president 46% said Obama and 44% said Bush. That's not much of a difference. I think the more Obama kills the economy, the more people will be wishing Bush was back! Life was good when Bush was president, (people are going to remember the 7 years of growth under Bush..not worried about losing their jobs.) now life sux!

If they try to use Bush in 2010, it just might backfire! The candidates can snap back with..."did you worry about your job under Bush? How's that unemployment check under Obama working out for ya?"

 
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