Thank You, Block Knight!
We’ve spent a long time with the President’s approval rating hovering just slightly underwater, in the single digits, trending toward double digits. Some polls you can count as reliably red-shifted. For example, polls from The Economist/YouGov are always 10 full points removed from what the rest of America was thinking about Presidential Job Approval. Less egregious, but always with a pink tinge is Rasmussen or, as I like to refer to them, Rrrrasmussen, due to them always being in the ballpark, but always slanted Republican.
But something strange has happened in the last several weeks. All of Barack’s approval rating numbers have been trending UP, and if it weren’t for the Economist/YouGov outliers, the RealClearPolitics average of polls would show him with a net POSITIVE rating for the first time in almost 3 years.
I noticed the shift in trend and have been watching it. It seems that any polls taken after February 13 show the new bump in popularity. But his approval on the economy, his approval on foreign policy and approval for ACA have all remained at their normal, very negative, numbers.
What ever could have happened in that time frame?
Oh yeah… 
Nino Scalia kicked the bucket, and America finally had a chance to have a reality-based SCOTUS. But then, within 24 hours, THIS guy opened up his turtly beak and quoth, “NONE SHALL PASS!” And all his Merrye Bundists said the same.
Suddenly, Obama’s approval rating started heading north, from exactly that date. Real Americans don’t like it when you actually mess with the Constitution. This is the first indicator I’ve seen that this Republican intransigence could PLAY throughout the election. Thanks, Mitch!
~Primo
What’s not to love about Mitch? Maybe his Cocaine Cartel in-laws, or the sedition he promoted before President Obama took his first oath of office. Seven years of obstructionist gridlock? Guess the final blow for Mitch was building that straw house and using Fat Tony as the final building block.
1C’mon PKM it was only 90 pounds of blow. Give the f-in-law a break! There was a whole lot more coal on the good ship Ping May that voyage!
2Micr, that’s another question for Mitch. Why is it that Elaine Chao does not wish to be associated with his McConnell name? Imagine the right wing hysteria, if HRC was running as Hillary Rodham. Gotta love that truthy double standard thingy that the ‘Cons have.
3Knew Elaine when she was called in to fix up the Aramony mess at United Way headquarters. Always figured her for a “modern” woman, keeping her own name. But now you’ve given me more to think about!!!
4maggie, on her own record Elaine Chao is an accomplished individual. But married to Mitch McTurtle? Something is amiss in Kentucky.
5@PKM
Extually …. I debated in my mind the value of HRC running as HR. I think there was a head exploding, distraction value for her having done so. Otoh she gets tremendous recognition value from the C sooo that’s great too. In the end she’s gonna make nacilbupeR heads explode anyways so nom de guerre doesn’t really matter.
6Micr, be it Hillary, Hillary Clinton, Hillary Rodham, or Hillary Rodham Clinton, those snacilbupeR are just too smart. They’ll find her faster than Madonna.
Still waiting for the conspiracy theorists to explain why the Obama family will be remaining in Dee Cee, so the girls can complete high school there. Good cover story, Obi-Wan Kenobe; that will keep them guessing.
Primo, I hope you are correct. It would be great if McTurtle cost the snacilbupeR the Senate and a sizable chunk of the House.
7Despite the deplorable state of RKlan politics, my worry is that their voter ID laws and gerrymandering are the reason that Democratic turnout is down, at least for the primaries and caucuses, which could cost the Dems the election. Is there a concerted legal effort to overturn these conditions before November?
8One of the high points of Secretary Clinton’s talking points is her ringing endorsement of President Obama’s successes, something Dems shied away from in 2014. That may be helping with the rise in his approval rating, along with Scalia’s departure and McConnell’s intransigence.
One reasonable suggestion wingnuts won’t entertain a Scotus nominee is that another liberal justice might re-instate voting restrictions on red states like Texas where voter suppression is big business. Wingnuts are seeing the writing on the wall and they don’t like it at all.
9maryelle: I’m sorry and I don’t mean to dump on you because I’ve heard this other places. But can we stop with the voter I.D. and gerrymandering excuses, please?
The best example I can come up with is Florida 2014. FL has about 2.5 million Dems registered. Only about 500,000 came out to vote! TWO MILLION DEMS couldn’t be bothered but they roll out the same old tired reasons. Now we hear out of NC the same tropes even though their voter I.D. law was passed 2 years ago. People have had PLENTY of time to meet the requirements.
I support REASONABLE voter I.D. Yes, you should be able to prove you are who you say you are. We have it here in VA. So, you can meet REASONABLE requirements if you want to — I have a driver’s license.
Okay… I don’t want to get into any argument about voter I.D. The point is Dems are lazy. That’s it. I’m tired of Dems crying about “good government” but won’t get off their butts to spend AN HOUR EVERY 2 YEARS to get it. Oh… though they’ll stand in line for hours for a new iPhone or concert tickets!
Citizenship isn’t easy. It’s not for sissies. If you aren’t willing to give the MINIMUM to get what you want then you don’t deserve it. Show me a 90%+ voter turn out for Dems, then you’ll get my ear. Hell… I’d settle for 60% at this point but I know even that’s a pipe dream. Nike’s theme is “Just DO it.” I’d love it if Dems would just DO it.
Sign me, Disheartened.
10I’ve also been watching this sudden improvement, but my interpretation is different. Seems to me, the start of the uptick largely coincided with the rise in Trumpmania. Suddenly, peeps were evaluating the prez not just on the basis of what the repugs were saying about him, but also by comparing him with the alternatives.
Their conclusion may well have been, that compared with the displays on show in the GOP “debates”, perhaps BO is rather better than they’d been told, after all.
11@JAKvirginia.
12Voter ID laws are about voter suppression and nothing more.
Anyone who claims otherwise is lying!!
Sorry JAK, Virginia is not Florida, nor is it Texas. I’m pretty sure a great deal of the reason dems in TX don’t vote like they should is because of 20-30 years of this crapola. And it IS discouraging. My little poor rural ranching county is split three ways, rich suburban bidness to the west, rich suburban university to the south, and east TX evangelical to the east. Why? Because we were a long time Dem leaning county that had an influx of retirees from the coastal chemical jungles (suburbanites that wanted to live in the country, go figure-but couldn’t leave their mindset behind!) and wound up in Tom Delay’s crosshairs. Also, being republican is very fashionable here in Texas; it’s like going to the “right” church, or being a Cowboys fan or something. They even sort of teach it in school, with mock elections that are a popularity contest measuring name recognition and what the kiddos hear at home. So I wouldn’t characterize Maryelle’s plaint as an excuse here in Texas so much as a mountainous obstacle that we are determined to climb, so that we can restore Texas’ outsize reputation as a land of dreams and opportunity- FOR EVERYONE, not just a privileged few!
13We forget that not everybody drives or has a car, especially the poor, elderly and students. They simply don’t have a driver’s license and the confusion about how to get a state photo ID, inability to easily access records like birth certificates etc. and the limited mobility of the elderly and physically challenged does make it difficult to overcome these obstacles. Estimates range in the hundreds of thousands per state who are affected, so these RKlan Voter ID laws do influence election outcomes.
14In PA we were lucky to have a judge overturn the law but not so in the R states. Add in the laziness factor and, yes, it is disheartening.
Aggieland Liz: I lived in FL and went through the procedure for voter I.D. there. Traumatizing, illogical, and stupid. Their’s is unreasonable. But I did it. (Armed with a FL birth certificate and state-issued I.D. I still had to wade through the bullcrap! Nuts.)
If I can so can others. And let’s not forget that these laws were passed by R dominated legislatures because Dems wouldn’t get out to vote. Do nothing then whine about the outcome? Won’t have it anymore. Just won’t have it.
15Well, my dear JAK I’m pretty sure you underrate yourself! But do nothing? No, I’m pretty sure the folks that come here to comment aren’t doing nothing. If you want an excellent analysis of how we arrived at this point, Ken wrote in an EXCELLENT and well reasoned reply to primo’s discussion of Trump and Cruz. I’ll be happy to join you over there-like to hear what you think about it, too! 😉
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