Grumpy voters send poll numbers down for MA pols

[TayTay]

Even Sen. Kennedy took a 10 point hit in the latest SurveyUSA poll numbers of voters in Massachusetts.

The worst hit, by far, was Governor Deval Patrick. His approval rating in January was a so-so 49% with 45% unfavorable. (The male/female approval split in Jan was 44% of men approved, 54% of women approved.) Gov Patrick's numbers fell dramatically in February with only 28% expressing approval of the Gov with 68% disapproving. (male/female split: 24% and 31%,respectively.)

Likewise, both MA Senators took a hit in February. In the January poll, Sen. Kennedy had a 76% overall approval rate (male/female: 73% and 78%) and Sen. Kerry had an overall approval of 61% (Male/female: 60% and 62%) The February poll shows Sen. Kennedy at a still high 66% overall approval rate (male/female: 56% and 76%) and Sen Kerry at 52% overall. (male/female: 46% and 58% )

Grumpy voters abound. It's the jobs situation, in my humble opinion. Everyone gets huts by this. The significant drop is in the number of men who approve of the job performance of these Bay State pols. Remember, this recession is hitting men worse than it is women with more men getting laid off from jobs and staying unemployed longer than are women, on average. (That said, Gov Patrick's number dropped like a stone with men and women.)

[Mass]

1. Patrick is seen as responsible of the numerous problems throughout the state.

School, police, firefighters, ..., losing their jobs impact both men and women. And proposing a gas tax right now is problematic for people who commute everyday from one side of the state to the other just to work. He does not necessarily have a lot of choices, but he ran on more help to the towns and he cannot deliver this right now.

Kerry is resisting fairly well, I think, which is probably due to his increased visibility. While some people are hurt and grumpy, others realize he is there for the state.

[YvonneCa]

2. Back in 'about' 1993, I attended a 'Futures' conference...

...for educators here in California. It was all about future trends and the importance of education going forward as globalization would impact the students were were teaching. (The major idea was that we would...and are...experience an information revolution, similar to the changes from an agrarian society to the industrial age at the turn of the last century. There was a lot of information about how our students would change jobs often and would need the skills to help them do that, as well as portable health care, etc. )

One of the things discussed was that white males would be the group most affected by all the restructuring that would take place...mostly because they hold many of the industrial(manufacturing) jobs that are going away in this change to an information age.

Seems like it was an accurate prediction. Makes people grumpy.