Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Low Man on the Poll



Proving once again that he can make history simply by being "present," Barack Obama has now achieved the lowest job approval rating of any President at this stage in his administration.

Achieving only a 43% approval rate, Mr. Obama's numbers are a full 8 percentage points beneath those of Jimmy Carter, a president so awful that even complimentary peanuts have nothing nice to say about him. (Okay, that's an awful joke about the peanut-farming president but astoundingly, even
that punchline has more than a 43% approval rate).

Mr. Carter, gleefully adding insult to injury, has suggested that part of Mr. Obama's problem is that he doesn't really participate in
leading the country... and rather than formulating legislation, he simply "lets Congress evolve multiple bills and then negotiate to get a final decision or even no decision."

Granted, the idea of getting Mr. Obama
more involved in legislation is the same sort of godawful miscalculation that previously made Carter's tenure a political punchline - but he still makes a point.
And gets the last laugh.


Now available at the
Carter Presidential Library Gift Shop.

-

18 comments:

CenTexTim said...

"Achieving only a 43% approval rate..."

My God, that's an extremely scary statistic. Another way to look at it is that the oxygen thief currently befouling the White House has almost half of the American public on his side. What does that say about us as a people?

Angry Hoosier Dad said...

CenTexTim:
What does that say about us as a people? It says that PT Barnum was right.
Stilton:
Complimentary peanuts??? Gotta give you a "groan" for that but I have a man-crush on your sense of humor. You truly are "da Man".

Emmentaler Limburger said...

I feel like the Great Swami in that I didn't need a poll to reveal this truth to me...

@Stilton: Complimentary peanuts?! Snark! Sounds like we're heading back to that Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy discussion again.

@CenTexTim: I hear ya. But remember: he was elected by much the same people - people who do not let the facts get in the way of their decisions. (Much like Øbama himself...)

@2ndWorstUSPresident: Congratulations, Jimmy. Enjoy your displacement. Much like the Lions learned in 2008: sometimes being best at something can be a bad thing...

Andrew said...

November 2012: Getting closer every minute to a global chorus of "Goodbye and thanks for all the fish."

John the Econ said...

@CenTexTim: Roughly half of Americans remain on his side because half of Americans are dependent upon government largess for their sustenance in some form. It's a next-to-impossible sell to get people to vote against paychecks and goodies. They fear (with justification) that the purge of Progressives in government will mean that they will have to fend for themselves. This is why Progressives are endlessly fighting to expand entitlement programs and the size of government. It's always a one-way trip until the day when the parasites finally kill the host.

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

@CenTexTim- When I heard the 43% approval figure, I was pretty dumbfounded that it could be that high until I thought about how many people pay no attention to politics at all, how many people get all their political news from leftwing sources, and how many people are receiving government checks. I'll bet a fair number of that 43% couldn't answer the most rudimentary questions about current events.

@Angry Hoosier Dad- The "complimentary peanuts" joke has been around for a long time, but I couldn't resist using it. Glad to hear that I'm forgiven.

@Emmentaler Limburger- Hey, I loved Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy!

@Andrew- And obviously, you loved Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

@John the Econ- Great little summary of how the Progressives buy votes with our tax money.

Pete(Detroit) said...

On the '43%ers'... Lets also not forget the 15- 20% of people that seriously self identify as communist / socialist, and truly believe that this is the way we SHOULD be moving.
Disgusting, I know, but they're out there

Emmentler Limburger said...

The 43% who approve of Øbama are like Ameglian Major Cows - genetically programmed for their own destructon.

@Stilton: And yet another H2G2 reference worked in - based on knowledge gained from the last time H2G2 came up, I've now read all six books of the "trilogy" - including Eoin Colfers And Another Thing. Felt good to escape into some well-crafted, satirical sci-fi for a break :o) If you haven't, you should finish the series. It's still fun after 30 years..

John the Econ said...

Quite frankly, considering the number of people (supposedly around 47%) who are economically dependent upon government, I'm astounded that his approval rating is actually below that.

Perhaps there are more dependent people than I thought who actually realize that killing the host means the end of their free ride...

frogmouth said...

He inherited that low approval rating from Bush.

SC said...

@ Pete “they are out there” AND in Congress…check out Maxine Waters on you-tube from May 30, 2008. Now that’s a socialist.

pryorguy said...

Two schools of thought..thats what we've always had here....I defy ANYONE, especially the left, to predict what will happen next year!I catch 'ED' on msnbc, as vile a lefty as I have seen, who is SO SURE his way is the right one, as well as that Ricky Nelson-lookin chick Rachel Maddow! Liberals are all so SURE in what they think, the unstudied will believe people like that and they know it. I daresay there is not ONE here at HopenChange who would begin to believe their lies! The media should go back to reporting news only, instead of trying to make it!!! Screwballs!!

Great cartoon btw! Keep the faith!

pryorguy said...

Just scanned Obama'a Thanksgiving observations...in which he said it is a day to be...
"eating great food, watching a little football, and reflecting on how truly lucky we are."

LUCKY???? DID HE REALLY SAY THAT? So, it is just dumb luck that the U.S. is the nation it is? Kinda telling, isn't it? But, not surprising.

What a goof. Keep the faith.

Colby said...

Today, I was looking at that nearly all red map from the 1984 elections. Only Minnesota and DC were blue. AND, Reagan only lost by a few thousand votes in MN, or he would be the first President in history to win take it all. So this is our goal, folks. We shall make the 2012 election map entirely red; we need to win 50 states (and let Narcissus have the other 7 that only he knows about).

Afterwards, let's make a toast with pan-galactic gargle blasters, or gyn'n'tonix (sp). Let us also put an end to the leaf being the national currency and go back to dollar!

BTW - every year at Christmastime, I drag out the entire trilogy and re-read it. Douglas Adams was a flaming liberal athiest, but he sure was talented with a pen and paper. Much like Stilton is talented with clippings laced with punny humor. Thanks for brightening my days, Stilton!

Pete(Detroit) said...

SC - ayup. See also MY buddy, John Conyers. Not only a pinko, but also a racist. (Hates Whitey) Not to mention Bernie Sanders, of VT "He is the first person elected to the U.S. Senate to identify as a socialist" (Wiki)

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

@John the Econ- I'd like to think there are some people who are on the government dime who know it's not good for the country in the long run. I don't know if I do think that...I'd just like to.

@frogmouth- Funny!

@SC- With Barney Frank's impending stepdown, Maxine Waters is well positioned to gain in power. Which is truly frightening: the woman is a blithering idiot.

@Pryorguy- Obama's reference to "luck" makes me think of Democrat Dick Gephardt's statement a few years back that successful people in our country were the "winners of life's lottery." Not people who had created anything, or worked for anything, or struggled for success - nope, they were all simply lottery winners, and as such should share their wealth with the unlucky.

@Colby- I haven't read Doug Adams in quite awhile but may have to do it soon. In another life of mine, I worked pretty closely with someone who was a good friend of Adams and said he was a wonderful guy in real life. Sorry we lost him at a too-young age.

Anonymous said...

It's fine to hate Obama, but I don't understand why you have to lie in order to help yourself hate him. Look at your own fine print more closely: "Proving once again that he can make history simply by being "present," Barack Obama has now achieved the lowest job approval rating of any President AT THIS STAGE IN HIS ADMINISTRATION" (emphasis mine). This is a meaningless statistic, because it compares approval ratings on a particular date of two presidencies. If you want a meaningful statistic, try lowest approval ratings at any date ever. Obama's ratings haven't begun to approach the low level of George W. Bush's when he left office: 22%.

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

@Anonymous (above)- Yes, it is fine to hate Obama, and it isn't necessary to lie to achieve that goal. Which is why I'm laughing about the fact that you're telling me to "look at your own fine print more closely." Look, I'm the one who PUT the fine print in there so the story would be accurate. Maybe you're regularly surprised when reading things you've written, but I'm not.

Moreover, I provide a link to the story which gives the exact statistical breakdown. So if I'm trying to lie, I'm doing a pretty bad job of it.

That being said, I didn't include "at this point in his miserable administration" in the first balloon of the cartoon, because there just wasn't room. I believe that having the additional facts and qualifications in the commentary and linked stories make up for anything not included in the day's cartoon.

Which, by the way, isn't a feature you can get when reading Doonesbury, which just makes crap up.