Here's the latest Repub spin on Bush's falling poll numbers.

[Maddy McCall]

Norah O'Donnell (WSJ and MSNBC White House correspondent) was on Hardball awhile ago, discussing the WSJ poll that shows that Bush's unfavorable numbers are higher (46%) than his favorable numbers (43%, I think).

So here's her spin. People aren't dissatisfied with Bush. They are dissatisfied with everyone in Washington, Republicans and Democrats. Bush's poll numbers don't demonstrate his unpopularity, per se, but the unhappiness that everyone is feeling with all the people in Washington. Look at Democratic poll numbers. They're not that great either. So Bush has done nothing to precipitate these poll numbers...He's catching the backlash of citizen dissatisfaction with all of Washington. If anything, people are blaming Bush for conditions he can't control--loss of blue collar jobs, gasoline prices, etc.

Can y'all believe this? She's basically saying that he's still popular, even though most people in America are dissatisfied with him.

[Iris]

1. How recent are these numbers?

I want to see some polls reflecting his popularity after the bombing in London.

[Maddy McCall]

2. Just said "July 2005."

His June 2005 number was 45% dissatisfied.

[Iris]

6. oops - self delete

[City Lights]

17. The poll was taken July 8-11.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8561443/

[noamnety]

3. Really, they're just dissatisfied with Clinton

and it's manifesting itself as bad poll numbers for Bush.

[mcctatas]

5. Damn, you beat me to it!

I would just like to compliment you on the way your mind works!:toast:

[Iris]

9. yeah. It''s only been, like, 4.5 years.

[jojo54]

4. Yea, right. And if it was a Democrat........

...blah, blah, blah.

They can't seem to take the sole blame for anything, can they?

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

7. How many viewers does Hardball have now?

A couple hundred thousand at most? And half of those TVs probably belong to people who hate Tweety's guts and are promising to quit watching him like I've now been doing since the last election.

[Stirk]

8. No, Norah- they hate what Bush has done, and they hate Dems for

not *stopping* him.

They hate you "journalists" for the same reason.

[Maddy McCall]

12. She didn't mention Rove, nor Bush's pet WAR in her explanation....

Ridiculous. And completely transparent.

[Old and In the Way]

18. Dems stopping Bush......

hard to do that, when you can't control the sub-committees. Republicans control the agenda and the votes in these committees. If the American people do hold the Democrats in poor regard, I think it's easy to see why-

(1) Their agenda in Congress is non-existant...it's purely reactive to stopping the Republican agenda. Republicans have killed bi-partisanship. The results are bad law that is obviously skewed against the average American.

(2) The media's rationing/control of the Democratic message. We all know that, with the exception of KO and TDS, the "serious" political shows are dominated and controlled by Republicans. They systematically underrepresent progressive/alternative viewpoints. They pick our most conservative Democrats (Biden and Lieberman) as the designated Democrats to appear as our spokespeople. How could any person who has only a passing interest in politics come away with a favorable impression...or get an idea that there are alternatives to the Republican agenda?

Any polls that put the Dems in the same low opinion as Republicans underscores just how effective the media has been in supressing any option to the Republican CW.

[alittlelark]

10. I think many dropped their blinders today

I doubt they will get picked back up. They can spin their way into oblivion.

[Dr.Phool]

11. I turned on the TV to watch Olberman, and caught the

Last 2 minutes of Tweety. He had on a Republican strategist, I don't remember the name.

Tweety said polls indicated Bushes numbers were the lowest of his presidency (39% approval) on the economy. This guy (A Republican strategist remember) said the economy was collapsing. Collapsing!

Slight downturn in unemployment, high oil prices, manufacturing way down. He said nobody has any confidence in the economy anymore. And nobody in Washington wants to talk about it.

[gatorboy]

13. I still blame Michael Jackson for Bush's low numbers.

Damn you, Jackson #5....Damn you......

It really is amazing the lengths our media will go to, to take the pressure of these low numbers off the Republicans. After all it's not like they're running everything.

They will forever whine about being the "underdogs" :eyes:

[KharmaTrain]

14. I Didn't Get Norah's Report That Way

In my book, she's one of the "good ones". Her report the other night was one of the few that stayed on the theme that Rove and others appear to be lying to Fitzgerald and that's where this investigation is going. She's smart and I really haven't noticed any real right wing bias in her reporting.

My take was that there's a growing disatisfaction with all politicians...and she's right. She was quoting the NBC/WSJ numbers. If you really wanna see a bad spin job, check out Timmy Russert's hatchet job that's posted on Crooks & Liars...he called liberals "secular" :wtf:

The thing that she points to, and honestly bothers me, is that the Repugnican and Bunnypants numbers have and continue to fall, but the Democratic numbers stay steady. Ironically, seems like every poll has the Democratic position at around 42-43 on everything.

Her point that I found of interest was how this attitude and polls are similar to those prior to the '94 elections...and something we should note. Many of our Democrats were caught pants down in that election and have paid dearly ever since. Now the shoe's on the other foot...let's kick some ass!

[Bumblebee]

15. Wasn't really her spin at first

but then Tweety started nudging her towards it, and she yielded. It's his agenda more than hers. Just remember how good she was the other day talking about how huge the Karl Rove thing was -- several days before it actually got to be huge in the eyes of the rest of the media. Give her a break -- blame it all on Tweety instead -- he deserves it in spades!

[FreedomAngel82]

16. LOL!!!

Lame-o! Can't even admit when they're not popular. :eyes: If I wasn't popular and I was a politician I'd at least admit it and figure out what I'm doing wrong and try to fix it and see what the people I'm repersenting say. This is so lame.

[walldude]

19. But then you'd have to listen to the polls

and we all know what the chimp in charge thinks of polls....