Bush approval increases *within the margin of error*

http://mediamatters.org/items/200512100004#1

On December 8, CNN mentioned a new CBS-New York Times poll showing a slight increase in President Bush's approval ratings no fewer than seven times: on American Morning (three times); Your World Today; Live From ... ; The Situation Room; and Lou Dobbs Tonight.

During the December 8 edition of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, Dobbs exclaimed:

new opinion poll shows President Bush's approval rating has bounced back now from historic lows, and bounced back strongly. The main reason appears to be that voters are feeling more optimistic about the direction of the economy.

In fact, the CBS-New York Times poll showed a five-point increase in Bush's approval rating, all the way up to a still-anemic 40 percent. The increase is made even less impressive by the fact that the previous CBS-NYT poll was conducted more than a month ago, and (most importantly) by the fact that the increase was within the poll's margin of error. Still, CNN couldn't resist the effort to tout yet another purported Bush "rebound." Nor could NBC's Today, where host Matt Lauer made the increase sound as dramatic as possible: "up 5 points from just last month"; neither he nor Chris Matthews acknowledged that the increase was within the margin of error.

is beyond doubt and not accidental.

i noticed that the ap/ipsos poll showing a 5 point change was taken using only 1002 participants... not really enough to be taken seriously..

quibble on the size of it now but we should quibble with the spin, obviously

of his term to keep his numbers up?

Joyous Good news that ought to make Bush's advisors sweat.

The unvarnished truth comes out so glaringly: Bush is at the mercy of the economy. If the economy does well, Bush looks OK. If the economy tanks, people pull out their Voodoo dolls and use Bush as a pin cushion.

Just wait till next year, starting about January. There are numerous factors which are going to hit all at once: rising gas prices, natural gas on the rise. Electricity is going up. The Xmas season is turning out fairly flat. GM is expected to file for bankruptcy. Ford is laying off 30K employees. The real estate market is sliding into the La Brea Tar pits. Millions of interest-only mortgage loans are going to come due in 2006.

Bush better pour that champagne while he still has time.

trial beginning.

There are probably some people desperately wanting to justify the war we were lied into by Dub.

Being reminded what a total creep Saddam Hussein is just might have helped them over that little "lied us into war" bump, and allowed them to go back to pretend mode.

That and the return to campaign style smear and lies aggressively told.

:puke:

Ya think?