The media loves to raz Hillary about her low favorability numbers. They talk about her 'unprecedented' unfavorables. It's the 'unprecedented' aspect that they are full of.
First of all, welcome to politics. Before she put her hat in the ring for 2016, her approval rating was 64 percent. No doubt it's been muddied since she put her hat back in the partisan ring.
The Beltway media certainly helped in this effort by giving her the worst coverage of any candidate, worse than Donald Trump.
http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2016/04/media-hillary-bashers-are-surprised-hrc.html
During the Summer and early Fall in 2015, literally all day everyday cable news and the print media savaged her over the fake email scandal. They kept lyingly talking about her being prosecuted by the FBI and maybe going to jail.
But beyond this, the truth is, high unfavorables are what happens more broadly in American politics, when you run for office. Everyone loves you until you ask for their vote. And it often seems like a counter or negative indicator: currently the worse you are doing in this primary, the better your approval rating is.
Kasich is the leader. Bernie is positive in many-though not all polls. I've noticed that some polls now have him negative as well. This is what comes from being in the line of fire, and being vetted.
Interestingly, Hillary's numbers never got as negative against Obama-there her lowest favorables were 48 percent. This is a function of two things.
1. Just how nasty and concerted the Right wing attack on her has been, with the cooperation of the Beltway press.
2. In general, things have gotten so much more partisan in the Obama years. Ironically as he ran as the postpartisan President! Obama has done many great things, but he hasn't been able to put an end to politics-nor is this a worthy goal.
But history provides us with more evidence that favorability is totally overrated. In June of 1992, Bill Clinton had an approval rating of 14 percent and disapproval of 40 percent.
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/23/us/1992-campaign-poll-bush-clinton-sag-survey-perot-s-negative-rating-doubles.html?pagewanted=all
We know how that turned out.
National polls are another pet peeve of mine. At this stage of the game, they are basically meaningless but the media trumpets them from the Heavens. Nate Cohn expresses the problem with this well:
First of all, welcome to politics. Before she put her hat in the ring for 2016, her approval rating was 64 percent. No doubt it's been muddied since she put her hat back in the partisan ring.
The Beltway media certainly helped in this effort by giving her the worst coverage of any candidate, worse than Donald Trump.
http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2016/04/media-hillary-bashers-are-surprised-hrc.html
During the Summer and early Fall in 2015, literally all day everyday cable news and the print media savaged her over the fake email scandal. They kept lyingly talking about her being prosecuted by the FBI and maybe going to jail.
But beyond this, the truth is, high unfavorables are what happens more broadly in American politics, when you run for office. Everyone loves you until you ask for their vote. And it often seems like a counter or negative indicator: currently the worse you are doing in this primary, the better your approval rating is.
Kasich is the leader. Bernie is positive in many-though not all polls. I've noticed that some polls now have him negative as well. This is what comes from being in the line of fire, and being vetted.
Interestingly, Hillary's numbers never got as negative against Obama-there her lowest favorables were 48 percent. This is a function of two things.
1. Just how nasty and concerted the Right wing attack on her has been, with the cooperation of the Beltway press.
2. In general, things have gotten so much more partisan in the Obama years. Ironically as he ran as the postpartisan President! Obama has done many great things, but he hasn't been able to put an end to politics-nor is this a worthy goal.
But history provides us with more evidence that favorability is totally overrated. In June of 1992, Bill Clinton had an approval rating of 14 percent and disapproval of 40 percent.
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/23/us/1992-campaign-poll-bush-clinton-sag-survey-perot-s-negative-rating-doubles.html?pagewanted=all
We know how that turned out.
National polls are another pet peeve of mine. At this stage of the game, they are basically meaningless but the media trumpets them from the Heavens. Nate Cohn expresses the problem with this well:
I also wish that one of these national polls would ask people if they've voted/who they voted for."
https://twitter.com/Nate_Cohn/status/722098743990951936
"It's just very hard to reconcile upcoming state polls or recent results with a tied national race."
https://twitter.com/Nate_Cohn/status/722103478320001025
"It'll be interesting to see whether the results over the next week or so look more like a Clinton+2 national race or a Clinton+12 race."
https://twitter.com/Nate_Cohn/status/722097972281024513
Again, it's the same thing with favorability. The worse you do in votes the better you seem to do in favorability. Polling people after they have voted doesn't tell us much either. I mean George W. Bush today has a positive approval rating.
Does this mean he'd win the Presidency if he ran today?
Basically, Americans seem to like you better when you lose, even though they won't vote for you.
https://twitter.com/Nate_Cohn/status/722098743990951936
"It's just very hard to reconcile upcoming state polls or recent results with a tied national race."
https://twitter.com/Nate_Cohn/status/722103478320001025
"It'll be interesting to see whether the results over the next week or so look more like a Clinton+2 national race or a Clinton+12 race."
https://twitter.com/Nate_Cohn/status/722097972281024513
Again, it's the same thing with favorability. The worse you do in votes the better you seem to do in favorability. Polling people after they have voted doesn't tell us much either. I mean George W. Bush today has a positive approval rating.
Does this mean he'd win the Presidency if he ran today?
Basically, Americans seem to like you better when you lose, even though they won't vote for you.
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