AP Poll Headline Misleading
Another misleading poll headline and this time it is from the AP. Stating that the approval rating of Congress is up does not even come close to describing an accurate assessment of the poll numbers. After the midterms everyone was aware that the GOP took a beating. Upon reflection, some Republicans state that they abandoned any sensible agenda and instead included an insane amount of spending and with the added tax cuts ran the nation’s debt through the roof.
The Dems like to attribute retaking the majority after more than a decade in terms of the voters mandate on the Iraq war. That is an overly simplistic and flawed conclusion to draw. Nothing is that simple and other than stating it, they have furnished no evidence to support that claim other than they regained the majority. And if one looks close at the poll numbers, they might not retain that majority past 2008. The AP headline for this article overstates the increase in an approval rating for Congress by comparing the last months of what in hind sight was the end of the GOP majority. And they compare that approval rating with the rating of a fresh majority only months old.
The overall approval rating for the GOP majority approaching the midterms was 25%. Pretty much a failing grade no matter whose scale you use. But it fails to consider that within that Congress was a Democrat minority. Likewise, all the blame in an overall approval rating for the current Congress cannot be placed with the Dems for the reverse is true. The minority is GOP and the rating is for Congress, not just one party or the other. The overall approval rating for this Congress, entering its fourth month, is only 40%. Not an optimistic prospect if the 2008 elections were held now. And if it does not improve soon the degradation may continue until the next election.
Another interesting part is that among registered Dems the approval rating is 60% or 3 out of 5 Dems approve of Congress while 2 out of 5 do not. So much for headlines and a reminder to skip the news if you can’t read past the headline or you may be absorbing an abundance of misleading information. At least if you read it all you can analyze it for yourself rather than taking the author’s headline for granted. Okay, maybe it was the editor.
Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com
AP Poll: Congress approval up
By DAVID ESPO — AP Special Correspondent
Published 2:24 pm PDT Monday, April 9, 2007
WASHINGTON (AP) Public approval for Congress is at its highest level in a year as Democrats mark 100 days in power and step up their confrontation with President Bush over his handling of the Iraq War, the issue that overshadows all others.