Thursday, November 02, 2006
Rate Your President!
Arguably, presidential approval ratings are the most well-known poll in America. Initiated by George Gallop in 1936, the presidential poll is seen as a thermometer for gauging the zeitgeist of American politics. Practically every polling agency weekly conducts such a poll, a summary of which can be found on Polling Records. Perhaps also, the approval rating best exemplifies an inherent weakness in mass polling. Can a thoughtful, engaged citizen reasonably answer the question “In general, is the president doing a good job?” with a yes or no? Political dialogue should not resemble a game of “Twenty Questions”; serious topics usually cannot be reduced to a one-word answer.
Presidential approval polls are taken far more often than the average American may realize. Characterized as a “voracious consumer of polls” by NYT writer Josh Green, Karl Rove takes presidential polls for his own private consumption constantly. For Rove, public opinion is not his interest. By carefully rephrasing upcoming policy agendas in the form of poll questions, Rove can devise the president’s latest spin. Through polls, Rove had discovered that “Stay the Course”, as a slogan, was a huge drag on Bush’s popularity. Overnight, Bush had deleted it from his vocabulary (see the hilarious video).
How does Mass Media use presidential approval ratings, aside from covering them as if they were actually news (such as recent NBC interview)? Perhaps newspapers with a generally critical opinion of the president will use his sagging approval ratings in a way that will harm his party in the upcoming elections. By including presidential approval ratings in the same article covering a House or Senate race, readers will make the unconscious connection between all Republicans and an incompetent President. In a brief study, I found a few articles that could support this theory: One from Denver, one from the NYT, and one in the New York Times Magazine. More research should be dedicated to this important question.
Arguably, presidential approval ratings are the most well-known poll in America. Initiated by George Gallop in 1936, the presidential poll is seen as a thermometer for gauging the zeitgeist of American politics. Practically every polling agency weekly conducts such a poll, a summary of which can be found on Polling Records. Perhaps also, the approval rating best exemplifies an inherent weakness in mass polling. Can a thoughtful, engaged citizen reasonably answer the question “In general, is the president doing a good job?” with a yes or no? Political dialogue should not resemble a game of “Twenty Questions”; serious topics usually cannot be reduced to a one-word answer.
Presidential approval polls are taken far more often than the average American may realize. Characterized as a “voracious consumer of polls” by NYT writer Josh Green, Karl Rove takes presidential polls for his own private consumption constantly. For Rove, public opinion is not his interest. By carefully rephrasing upcoming policy agendas in the form of poll questions, Rove can devise the president’s latest spin. Through polls, Rove had discovered that “Stay the Course”, as a slogan, was a huge drag on Bush’s popularity. Overnight, Bush had deleted it from his vocabulary (see the hilarious video).
How does Mass Media use presidential approval ratings, aside from covering them as if they were actually news (such as recent NBC interview)? Perhaps newspapers with a generally critical opinion of the president will use his sagging approval ratings in a way that will harm his party in the upcoming elections. By including presidential approval ratings in the same article covering a House or Senate race, readers will make the unconscious connection between all Republicans and an incompetent President. In a brief study, I found a few articles that could support this theory: One from Denver, one from the NYT, and one in the New York Times Magazine. More research should be dedicated to this important question.
# posted by Jonathan Noble @ 10:22 PM 
