The September Rasmussen Public Trust Numbers.

The Democrats may simply have to accept the fact that they no longer can automatically count on the trust of the American people on any topic.

September 2009 August 2009
Issue Dem GOP Diff Dem GOP Diff Shift
Health Care 44% 44% 41% 44% (3) 3
Education 45% 40% 5 38% 41% (3) 8
Social Security 43% 41% 2 39% 43% (4) 6
Abortion 37% 44% (7) 36% 46% (10) 3
Economy 39% 47% (8) 40% 46% (6) (2)
Taxes 40% 48% (8) 35% 51% (16) 8
Iraq 37% 47% (10) 42% 42% (10)
Nat’l Security 39% 51% (12) 43% 47% (4) (8)
Gov’t Ethics 34% 35% (1) 34% 31% 3 (4)
Immigration 33% 45% (12) 35% 43% (8) (4)

Seven out of ten, and one tie.  The good news for the Democrats is that they made some decent recoveries from August’s numbers; the bad news is that August was really bad for them, so they’re still trying to make up ground.  The most important/topical number there – health care – is probably their brightest spot, but being equally trusted on an issue when you’ve spent the last few years being clearly trusted is not the most welcome news in the world.  Particularly when ‘trusting the Democrat’ does not exclude ‘trusting the Democrat to vote the Republican position.’

Moving on: nice to see that the Government Ethics numbers are starting to consistently reflect objective reality, not to mention the Economy ones.  I’m interested how much of that is reflected by cap-and-trade – and how bringing that issue back will affect the Taxes question.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

Gallup mutters about relationship between Dow, approval ratings.

Clearly in reference to Jim Cramer’s I’ve-been-saving-this-for-months revenge clip* of a few days ago, the Gallup organization would like you to know that there’s no historical relationship between a President’s approval rating and the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

None at all.

Absolutely zero.

Mind you, that wasn’t the argument that got made – Cramer was arguing that this specific President’s disapproval ratings (via Gallup!) were being reflected in the S&P 500 going up – but nonetheless, Gallup felt the need to do that analysis.

Well.  Thanks for letting us know.

Moe Lane

PS: Yes, I see the large holes in Cramer’s theory.  So does Cramer, probably.  It’s still funny that Gallup felt the need to do some repair work here. Clumsily. Continue reading Gallup mutters about relationship between Dow, approval ratings.

The August Rasmussen Public Trust Numbers.

Democrats slip to -3 on health care.

I think that this is going to sting the Democrats a little.

August 2009 July 2009
Issue Dem GOP Diff Dem GOP Diff Shift
Health Care 41% 44% (3) 46% 42% 4 (7)
Education 38% 41% (3) 41% 38% 3 (6)
Social Security 39% 43% (4) 37% 42% (5) 1
Abortion 36% 46% (10) 39% 46% (7) (3)
Economy 40% 46% (6) 41% 46% (5) (1)
Taxes 35% 51% (16) 36% 52% (16)
Iraq 42% 42% 41% 45% (4) 4
Nat’l Security 43% 47% (4) 40% 49% (9) 5
Gov’t Ethics 34% 31% 3 33% 34% (1) 4
Immigration 35% 43% (8) 34% 40% (6) (2)

Eight out of ten again, and the only sour note is that last month’s Democratic-flavored scandals were not sufficiently public enough to overcome what appears to be the built-in public bias on Government Ethics. On the other hand, we just took first place in health care for the first time in two years, and it’s still fifteen months to November 2010. So, room for development, there. As for the Iraq question… well, for both countries’ sake I’m just as pleased to see that it’s reflecting a relatively quiet situation. The way that our domestic numbers are racking up I’m just as happy to concentrate on those right now anyway.

So, you have to wonder: at what point will the White House decide that it’s time to fold and start a new hand?

Moe Lane

(H/T: @JamesRichardson)

Crossposted to RedState.

The CNN ‘Second 100 days’ report card.

Found here, in all its unscientific and meaningless glory.  Oh, yes: its findings are completely invalid, from the C+ given to Secretary State Clinton to the D given to Congress (or that the D given to Republican leadership is nonetheless a higher D than the one given to Congress as a whole).  There’s nothing random about the process by which they got 300K folks to take the test in the first place; if any of the answers are right, it’s completely by accident.  All very, very true.

On the other hand – and speaking as an old-school blogger who remembers how often these kinds of polls got gleefully taken over by Lefty script kiddies – if the purpose of the poll was to answer the question How motivated is the Online Left these days? then the results may be worth looking over, after all.  Because they suggest that the answer appears to be, Apparently not all that much.

A tragedy.  Manipulating online polls so that the results came out congruent with their comforting fantasy ideology was always one of the Left-sphere’s more charming traits.  Or less not-charming, at least.

Moe Lane