CNN Poll: 40% President Obama is too liberal; 17% not liberal enough; 40% Just right

[TomCADem]

If you listen to most stories, President Obama's disapproval is due to the rightward tilt of American citizens. Yet, nearly 60 percent of people either think that President Obama is just right or not liberal enough. But, you never hear this angle on the corporate media. Likewise, for all the stories about President Obama's "unpopularity," you never hear about how Congress's approval is near historic lows or that this Congress has been among the least productive in terms of legislation that has been passed. We don't hear about how Boehner can't even manage his caucus.

Instead, listening to the Sunday news, you would hear the upcoming election being seen as a rejection of liberalism, the ACA, climate change, gay marriage, etc.

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2014/images/10/27/10274pm.poll.pdf

In general, would you say that President Obama's views and proposed programs for the country are
too liberal, not liberal enough, or just about right for the country?

Too liberal 40%
Not liberal enough 17%
Just about right 40%
No opinion 3%

Do you approve or disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job?

Approve: 13%
Disapprove: 85%
No opinion: 2%

[BlueCaliDem]

1. This midterm election is about CONGRESS yet all we hear is "the president is this, the

president is that" with not a negative word said about Congress' abysmal approval and record-high disapproval ratings. The president isn't even on the friggin ballot for chrissakes.

MSM is working tirelessly to make these midterms all about President Obama rather than the obstrucrionist, government-shutting-down, deficit creating Republicans. MSM is in the tank for the GOP and they're working overtime to make sure the GOP wins the Senate this year.

I can only hope Americans aren't that stupid, and that they remember just WHO shut the government down last year. And it wasn't ObamaCare.

[BlueJazz]

2. Too Liberal ?? No wonder 2/5 of the population thinks I am a tree-hugging, far left nut. I like it.

[zipplewrath]

3. I know

I work with a big bunch-o-right wing nuts. I tell them all the time that they have no idea what a liberal is. Clinton isn't it. Truth is Dean wasn't either. They have no friggin' idea at all.

[Hortensis]

6. Same here. Clueless, but THEY like it hat way. Sigh...

[cstanleytech]

37. Want to bet that the people who think is he to liberal are probably people whos only

source of news is probably right wing talk radio or fox news?

[mvd]

4. Our party went to the right and the Repukes have gone insane

Meaning we let the "middle" get way too far right.

Our Senate candidates running from a President who I would not call liberal is depressing.

[blkmusclmachine]

5. The media are owned by 1%'ers. And they have an agenda.

So, of course you're not going to get the truth from them.

[Blue Idaho]

7. No Kidding...

The paid political hacks of th M$M are so bent they routinely report anyone espousing a Democratic ideal as performing an act of civil disobedience. Not that elected political bums are much better. If anyone dare champion any honestly liberal position they paint them as a wild eyed anarchist wielding a cartoon bomb with a lit fuse.

[Historic NY]

8. The porridge is too hot, no its too cold....

I don't want porridge.

[pnwmom]

9. Only 17% think he's not liberal enough, which puts the general DU view into perspective.

We think we're average, but we're more to the left than most Americans, particularly those DUers who view the President as a centrist or rightest.

[1StrongBlackMan]

10. ^^^ This ^^^

[Enthusiast]

12. I don't know.

The media has successfully created an Obama is a liberal socialist meme.

That 17% represent the portion of the electorate that looks beyond the MSM meme to ferret out the truth. When polled on the issues a majority of the American people are actually more in alignment with that 17%.

This is why the Right® has spent years falsely defining the term liberal. When it comes to the issues we are pretty much centrist.

[Hissyspit]

22. When have I ever thought we were average?

I came and started posting here because I thought we were SMARTER.

[VanillaRhapsody]

26. I have been trying to tell folks on DU this for some time...

Just running more and more Liberal candidates is not the answer...

[Cha]

33. I saw that he was "center right" today.. which is hogwash and reality messes with their little

pronouncement.

Paul Krugman: In Defense of Obama..

But now the shoe is on the other foot: Obama faces trash talk left, right and center – literally – and doesn't deserve it. Despite bitter opposition, despite having come close to self-inflicted disaster, Obama has emerged as one of the most consequential and, yes, successful presidents in American history. His health reform is imperfect but still a huge step forward – and it's working better than anyone expected. Financial reform fell far short of what should have happened, but it's much more effective than you'd think. Economic management has been half-crippled by Republican obstruction, but has nonetheless been much better than in other advanced countries. And environmental policy is starting to look like it could be a major legacy.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/in-defense-of-obama-20141008

Again, Progress.

"For the 2014 Election, Use This List of 269 Accomplishments by President Obama, Democrats"

http://pleasecutthecrap.com/obama-accomplishments/

He's also been busy signing Executive Orders that no "center right" pol would be doing.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/executive-orders

[Stevepol]

11. This explains Obama's supposedly low approval rating.

Turns out that 40% think he's too liberal and disapprove while 17% think he's not liberal enough and thus disapprove. That's about 57% who could be said to "disapprove." 40% think he's fine as he is and apparently approve. 3% have no opinion. That means about 40% approve of his performance which is almost exactly his supposed approval rating of 39%. Broken down that way, it's merely a reflection of the fact that the conservatives are pretty well following their usual brainwashed drivel about Obama's supposed liberalism. When he's able to do something again, the disaffected liberals will be somewhat approving again and all will be well in Demo land. In fact, all is going well right now. It's just the media twisting themselves into pretzels to find something to be negative about.

[Enthusiast]

13. The media has certainly twisted themselves into pretzels in bolstering the corporate message.

Overcoming the biased media is our greatest challenge.

[1StrongBlackMan]

16. Exactly! ...

Turns out that 40% think he's too liberal and disapprove while 17% think he's not liberal enough and thus disapprove. That's about 57% who could be said to "disapprove."

Thus high-lighting the uselessness of "Approve/Disapprove" polling.

I postulated, the other day, a step further that the "Approve/Disapprove" measure is more a function of how strongly one feels about any particular issue and is closely connected to what is appearing in the media.

[Pantagruelsmember]

14. Obama should have 70% approval

The big picture, Obama reality the obstructionist GOP won't admit:

The economy has recovered from the Bush/GOP disastrous incompetence
Obama has been at least as good as Reagan for the economy. In fact, U.S. has now had 63 straight months of job expansion, including 54 consecutive weeks of private sector growth.
Obama’s administration has created more jobs in five years than Bush managed in all eight.
The current period has also been notable for the huge cutbacks in public-sector jobs, which the White House argues makes the private-sector job performance more impressive. (New jobs in the public sector, and the resulting paychecks, obviously help generate additional private-sector jobs.) So the White House argues that the continued private-sector growth, in the face of massive public-sector cutbacks, is especially significant.


The ebullient stock market reflects BO/Dem leadership.
The Federal Budget Deficit has Shrunk by 2/3 since 2009

The Obama administration is the most honest, scandal free in history. Government Spending has only gone up 1.4 percent under Obama, the lowest spending has increased since Eisenhower, “The Last Actual Republican.” Government spending increased 8.1 percent under Bush, and 8.7 percent under Reagan.
Taxes have only increased on those making $400,000 a year or more, the richest 2 percent of Americans.
For approx. 95 percent of us , federal taxes have actually gone down.


Bin Laden is dead.There have been no significant foreign attacks on American soil.
U.S. dependence on foreign oil is at a record low due to domestic oil production and higher fuel efficiency standards.

The dollar is KING and there has been no appreciable inflation.
The U.S. under BO is the envy of the world.

Obamacare is working. Approximately 10 million Americans who didn’t have health insurance before have it now. Rates haven’t gone up across the board as predicted by GOP critics mainly because healthcare costs are now rising slower than they have at any point since 1960 and in many cases going down. The success of Obamacare has extended the projected solvency of Medicare out to 2030. Seniors have saved $Billions on prescriptions and millions of Americans have received refunds from their health insurance companies thanks to provisions of ACA.


*Blogger jeff61b , "14 Facts About The Obama Presidency That Most People Don’t Know" at hub pages , compiled, documented and published many of these stats which I'm passing along and suggest you pass along too.

[1StrongBlackMan]

17. Here's a link to the Blog ...

http://jeff61b.hubpages.com/hub/14-Facts-About-The-Obama-Presidency-That-Most-People-Dont-Know

[americannightmare]

39. I disagree that America is the envy of the world...

but it's not Obama's fault that we are in fact a laughing stock. Wall Street numbers don't mean diddly to the tens of millions of under-employed and unemployed. Gun violence and police brutality are rampant in many areas and increasing. Anti-intellectualism and anti-science doom our future. Rents are rising while wages remain stagnant at best. But the House holds the purse strings, so Obama would have to go Bulworth and sign an executive order for a WPA-style jobs/infrastructure program addressing both climate change and the employment situation, in order for us to have a fighting chance at a mediocre future. This rosy picture you paint is not the reality for a majority of Americans. The problem is, many of them vote for rethugs anyway...

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/28/business/economy/recovery-has-created-far-more-low-wage-jobs-than-better-paid-ones.html?_r=0

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jun/17/business/la-fi-mo-employee-engagement-gallup-poll-20130617

[JoePhilly]

15. The media avoids that break down on every topic.

The ACA has similar numbers.

Everything that Obama has done breaks down like that.

40% Obama is a socialist!!
40% Obama is OK
20% Obama is a corporatist!!

Media adds the 40% who hate Obama because he's too liberal, with the 20% who thinks he's too corporatist, and then tells the other 40% they too should hate Obama like the majority does.

SO it goes like this .... The RW pundit on the panel says Obama is BAD cause he's a socialist ... the LW pundit disagrees, and says Obama is BAD because he's a corporatist. 2 Obama Bad memes, totally opposite.

The goal is to get the middle 40% to adopt one of the alternative Obama BAD positions. It does not matter which one.

I've been pointing this out for about 5 years.

[1StrongBlackMan]

18. Yep ...

And no one, particularly those of the Left, seems capable/willing to call out this phenomena; probably because ... well ... "It does not matter which one (someone subscribes to), just so long as, Obama is BAD, which makes me right.

I wonder where the "Approval Rating" would be if, the Left pushed back on this to the point where polling outfits could no longer conflate the "Obama Bad" memes ... and maintain their credibility?

[JoePhilly]

19. It would be great for the left.

We'd have far more power.

[1StrongBlackMan]

20. "WE" collectively,

I.e., the Left, Yes; but, ...not those that find themselves outside of the Democratic mainstream left, that need the "everyone disapproves" numbers to amplify their voice.

[JoePhilly]

21. Oh yes ... I do mean all of us.

And not only the "left", and the mainstream Dems ... the right wing too.

GOP policies are awful for everyone. If the "left" and "mainstream dems" worked together more, we'd help everyone.

[tclambert]

23. 85% disapproval for Congress, yet incumbents will win most races.

It must be the President's fault Congress is so bad. Or maybe it's everybody else's Congressmember, and never your own.

[VanillaRhapsody]

27. because Obama is Black....and somehow a bunch of White folks thinks that is worse than Congress...

[Spitfire of ATJ]

24. CNN is a joke...

Their goal is to make people throw up their hands in disgust and walk away thinking it's hopeless to change anything.

Their slogan should be, "It's always been this way, it's always going to be this way and there is NOTHING you can do about it."

[aquart]

32. Unless you look at the last 60 years.

That's when your eyes go baby saucer round and you can't stop yourself from exclaiming, "Oh, WOW!"

[Spitfire of ATJ]

36. We've all heard that Reagan would be considered "too liberal" these days.

[Towlie]

25. This is what I call the "Goldilocks Effect", and it illustrates the fallacy of approval ratings.

[TrollBuster9090]

28. Want To See Obama's Approval Ratings Skyrocket to 85%?

Just watch Republicans take over the Senate, and proceed with two years of dumbass IMPEACHMENT hearings and GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWNS. They'll turn him into a martyr and a hero overnight.

I'm pretty sure all of those stupid PACs that claim to support the Democratic Party had THIS in mind when they decided to sit this election out, and save their money for Hilary Clinton in 2016. Just give the public a belly full of Republican craziness, so that the voters will really be ready for a change in 2016. Wouldn't surprise me a bit.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

29. DING DING DING!!!! We have a winner!!!

I was just telling someone something like that earlier today.

[DonCoquixote]

30. and as an added bonus

Hillary can govern to the right of Ron Ray Gun himself and still look leftish in comparison.

[aquart]

31. Ask the 40% to define "liberal" before they are allowed to answer that question.

JUST FUCKING ONCE.

[Sunlei]

34. He's always been a moderate.

and a 'greenhorn' in some areas, imo.. but I still love him!

[nlkennedy]

35. Seen it before

The capitalist class speaks through the private media because they are the reason the private media stays afloat.

We've seen the private media try to pick our politicians.

I've never seen such an obvious case as we've seen with this election.

They should just say it -- they desperately want Republicans in office. It makes for sexy copy.

[RoccoR5955]

38. If Obama is in any sense liberal,

Than my name is Nikita Khrushchev.

[October]

40. Tired of stupid polls.

Tired of stupid.