NEOAVATARA

Obama’s overall approval numbers have fallen.  Rasmussen shows him negative in their approval index for the first time (meaning more people strongly disapprove of him than approve of him).  Gallup shows his approval at 58%, which is actually lower than George W. Bush at the same point in his presidency (Bush was over 60% until Sept. 11th, and then of course shot upward).

39% now blame Obama for the bad economy, while 54% blame his predecessor. And (surprise!) 52% now feel that Mr. Obama is not a bipartisan president, but ruling as a partisan Democrat.

On foreign affairs, a relative split.  Rasmussen shows 43% feel Obama’s response to Iran was correct, 35% think he was too weak.

Health care reform shows the most divisiveness, or maybe the correct term is confusion.  A New Times poll shows that 72% of people favor having some public plan.  However, 77% in the same poll want to keep their own insurance and are happy with it.  Democrats have been resistant to medical tort reform, but 48% of Americans think it is too easy to sue doctors;  44% believe caps on malpractice are necessary.  Seventy-five percent (75%) say medical malpractice lawsuits are an important factor in the rising cost of health care.

Here is the worst one of all. Apparently, the New York Times poll about people’s feelings on health care was about as slanted as an Iranian presidential election.  The poll initially stated 72% of respondents supported a public healh plan.

However, you look into the numbers, the results are highly dubious.  According to the actual poll data, of the 73% of respondents who said they voted in 2008 only 34% voted for McCain and 66% for Obama. The actual vote was 48% McCain.  Additionally, the breakdown by political ideology is off.  In this poll, the sample identified as 27% liberal, 37% moderate, and 29% conservative. In contrast, last week’s Gallup Poll showed Americans identify as 21% liberal, 35% moderate, and 40% conservative.

It gets even worse.  16% of respondents were temporarily out of work, and another 10% was not in the market for work.  That means a whopping 26% of the respondents are currently unemployed.  That is all fine and all, but the current unemployment rate being less than 10%, this obviously will skew the results as well.

And then, even with these skewed results, there are still bad signs for Obamacare.  The number who say the system needs fundamental change is almost exactly what it was in 1993-94. The number who trust the president to make the right decisions on healthcare policy is almost exactly what it was in 1993 — the number who trust Congress has actually declined. Both are below 40% in trust.

I am actually a supporter for national health care reform.  I think that there are many good ideas that can be used to give universal care, and cut costs.  But outright lying by the preeminent newspaper in America does no one any good.  The Times should be embarrassed of this poll.