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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Rude Pundit:Poll Naming Obama "Worst President" Since WWII Proves that People Are Fucking Idiots
Let's get this straight: we're supposed to take seriously a Quinnipiac University poll that says that 33% of voters believe Barack Obama is now the worst president since the Second World War, more than Bush II, more than Nixon. That's what we're supposed to do, right? Act like this is a real thing? That it wasn't just a bunch of fucknuts, shut-ins, assholes, mouth-breathers, and Fox "news" viewers who still have home phones? That if you look at the numbers, it's mainly skewed by people over 50, who might have a tendency to be a smidge racist, a tincture conservative, and a pinch cranky?
But, hey, why the hell not, let's just say for a second that it's true, that the poll is really reading the zeitgeist, that, despite inheriting two worthless wars, an economy in the shitter, and an opposing party that decided, "Fuck this coon," despite ending one of the wars and kind of on the way to ending the other, keeping us out of a bunch of conflicts, getting the economy at least out of the shitter (and making rich people even richer so that they're like hogs in a pool of filth made out of gold bricks), getting health insurance to an additional 10 million people and counting, expanding rights for gays and lesbians, all while being confronted by an opposing party that decided, "Fuck this coon," yeah, sure, people believe that Barack Obama is the worst president since 1945, the firefighter worse than the arsonist.
Well, the only rational conclusion, in that scenario, is that Americans are a bunch of fucking idiots who have the attention span of a brain-damaged beagle who wonders every day why a new nice lady feeds him.
Which leads us to the conservatives on the Washington Post's opinion page, two of whom, Marc Thiessen and Michael Gerson, use the poll as the basis of their "columns" this week (if by "columns," you mean, "various shades of vomit that come from different mouths but all from the same digestive tract" .
Ever the rational rightie, Gerson is more realistic about the poll's overall evaluation of Obama, but he finds other polls just as damning of the president. "We already know that Obama is a highly polarizing figure," Gerson offers. And "Obama is solidifying a perception that he is out of his depth. Once made, such an impression is difficult to unmake." This is not to mention that "Public impressions of the economy seem set. Obamacare is enduringly controversial." Hmm. Wonder where such impressions come from?
Torture supporter Thiessen laps up the Quinnipiac results like he's the happiest cum whore in stocks at the leather convention. "Obama has presided over a recent string of disasters that make even Carter look competent," scrawls Thiessen one-handedly, the other jacking it hard to an old Billy Beer ad. Everything is a fucking nightmare now: "From his failure to enforce his own red line in Syria to the release of five senior Taliban leaders from Guantanamo Bay to the Russian invasion and annexation of Crimea to the implosion of Iraq, the world is on fire." Here at home, everything is in tatters, motherfuckers, tatters: "Weve had the Department of Veterans Affairs scandal .?.?. the flood of tens of thousands of unaccompanied children across the border .?.?. the epidemic of hard-drive crashes at the Internal Revenue Service after Congress began investigating the targeting of the presidents political opponents."
You could argue each of these. You could point out how he ended the Russia/Ukraine crisis without the whole thing becoming a regional war. You would say that it would have been useless to the point of masochism to intervene in Syria. You could say that Obama has deported...that the hard drives aren't...fuck it. Instead, it's just easier to stare with awe, wondering about Thiessen, "Goddamn, how can he gobble so much spooge? Doesn't he ever get full?"
The answer, of course, is "Are you kidding? He loves the jizz juice." So Thiessen gets into the horrors of Obamacare: "Obamacare remains deeply unpopular. In May, the law registered 55 percent opposition. Obama hopes that the law will be such a success that Americans will one day look back and decide that they were wrong about it after all. The more likely scenario is that Obamacare will go down in history not as the project that salvaged Obamas legacy but the one that discredited big-government liberalism for a generation." We really do live in different dimensions in a standing multiverse, don't we?
Not once, not a single godforsaken time in their querulous scribbles do either Gerson or Thiessen mention the "Fuck that coon" Republicans as having any role in any of this. Not once do they say that Obama offered, again and again, to work across the aisle. Not once do they say that Obamacare was a Republican idea they once loved. The Republicans are blameless because that would fuck up the narrative, man. That would totally fuck up the "perception" that has been "solidifying" thanks to a media that would rather flog the illusion of balance than report reality. That would fuck with the absolute devotion of the right to declaring Obama better do things their fuckin' way or he is fucked in the ass without lube. And when Obama slaps the dildo away to try to do something, that's overreach, that's dictatorship. Refusing to compromise or bargain? That's standing on principle. The public believes that shit because it's easier to hate the president than to try to work to change things to support the guy you voted for twice.
In the Quinnipiac poll, 45% think that a President Mitt Romney would be doing a better job than Barack Obama. That's compared to 38% who said Romney'd do a worse job.
It's either all fiction or we have gone truly mad.
http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2014/07/poll-naming-obama-worst-president-since.html
MattSh
(3,714 posts)Well, it might not be a regional war, but it's still one hell of a fucking mess. A mess created by the US State Department...
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)Oh well....
As for the OP, it is dead on. Why this reaction to Obama?
Because Obama is kicking republican ass all over the field. They can't make a move that Obama doesn't tackle them. They can't run anywhere without Obama blocking them. They are whiny little bad loser, spoil sports that would get laughed off any schoolyard playground.
Really is quite embarrassing to see half the politicians in this country be such whiny little bastards.
MattSh
(3,714 posts)And yeah, State share a whole lot of blame for the Ukraine situation.
IDemo
(16,926 posts)Agreed
Jim Lane
(11,175 posts)Some historians would pick Buchanan as the worst President ever, partly because several states seceded during his administration. The average contemporary poll respondent, however, couldn't even tell you who was President when the first vote for secession occurred.
These poll respondents reflect current partisan views. People of the same party as the incumbent will split their votes among multiple Presidents. People of the other party will tend to name the incumbent as the worst, because he's the President who's most in the news right now and they don't like him. It's nothing to get worked up over. A good post about it on Kos: "Why that 'Worst President' Quinnipiac poll is catnip for right-wingers, but essentially meaningless".
Johonny
(20,850 posts)oddly in America to find criticism of the Obama presidency you have to look at his supporters because the opposition party lives in a fantasy world created by Fox news.
billhicks76
(5,082 posts)They can't wrap their head around that GW Bush was the worst president ever. It's turned into a I know you are but what am I child's game. These poor little repubs can't handle that their leader was the worst and it's hurt their precious feelings. They think blaming Obama will offset their idiocy. They are whiners and babies. Worst of all Bush allowed 911. He could've stopped it and didn't. This alone makes Bush scum. And democrats biggest failing is cowering to false patriotism and not going after Bush for 911. Get it through your thick skulls democrats...giving Bush a pass on 911 makes us fools and idiots too.
navarth
(5,927 posts)I think one could make a strong case for Saint Reagan or Nixon being worse.
If one wished to. Just sayin'.
marble falls
(57,081 posts)albino65
(484 posts)Word for word from the Quinnipiac description of the poll:
From June 24 30, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,446 registered voters nationwide
with a margin of error of +/- 2.6 percentage points. Live interviewers call land lines and cell
phones.
The Quinnipiac University Poll, directed by Douglas Schwartz, Ph.D., conducts public
opinion surveys in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Ohio, Virginia,
Iowa, Colorado and the nation as a public service and for research.
Hardly a representative sample of America, though it might be of Amurika.
Jeff In Milwaukee
(13,992 posts)It's the same batshit crazy Republican base than wants to see Obama impeached because...you know...Freedom and such.
In that same poll, 35% said Ronald Reagan is the Greatest President. Guess who they were? Yep. Same assholes.
What happened in the Worst President poll is that George W. Bush and Nixon basically split the liberal vote (the two received 41% combined), so the rightwing dickhead votes swung the final total toward Obama. Even among "Independent" voters -- who are basically just Republicans who are too chicken-shit to say so, the combined Dubya-Nixon total was still higher than Obama.
Interesting Note on the Crosstabs: Voters under 50 picked GWB over Obama as the worst. So the headline here is basically "Abe Simpson Hates Obama." And this is news? How?
Maedhros
(10,007 posts)heaven05
(18,124 posts)and as is usually the case, you are 100% on the mark.
mnhtnbb
(31,388 posts)But, I would agree with The Rude One's sentence:
Well, the only rational conclusion, in that scenario, is that Americans are a bunch of fucking idiots who have the attention span of a brain-damaged beagle who wonders every day why a new nice lady feeds him.
Couple that with the fact Americans are fed BS daily by the corporate news organizations with an agenda, well, it
hardly makes for a reliable poll.
Orsino
(37,428 posts)Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)At the height of the Iraq War for Profit and Katrina etc. I was at a party where someone who heard I was up on politics asked me, "George Bush - Is he a democrat or a republican?"
HALF of this country doesn't vote.
I am FIRMLY convinced a fraction of those people woke up one morning and saw a black man was now president and their jaw dropped and they said, "How'd THAT happen?"
Glenn Beck (who was still on FOX "News" "taught them" all of the shadowy conspiracies about how Obama STOLE the election with the help of ACORN and "widespread voter fraud" and these uninformed people actually believed his nonsense was an actual telecourse because of that fucking blackboard.
These people were then told there was a popular uprising to "Take Back America" and were told where they would be meeting and people who never protested before showed up purple with rage over, let's face it, a black man in THEIR White House.
Since then, the media which has LONG been infiltrated by the Republicans has done all it can to never mention the Bush Years except as a "Obama refuses to take responsibility" story.
To sum up: A little bit of both.
Jamaal510
(10,893 posts)"I was at a party where someone who heard I was up on politics asked me, "George Bush - Is he a democrat or a republican?"
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)I told him if he's going to hate them, do it for their rude waiters.
Then I told him French commandos were fighting side by side with our troops in Afghanistan.
They're smart enough not to believe the lies about Iraq.
He stood his ground like a dumbass. I looked to his girlfriend and said, "So much for the French Maid outfit." and walked away.
raindaddy
(1,370 posts)If we had a genuine populist Democrat in the White House who was willing to investigate Cheney/Bush and release the facts to the public, raise taxes on the ultra wealthy, scrap neocon foreign policy, dump job killing trade bills,prosecute the big banks, and make corporate buyout of our election process a core issue we wouldn't be discussing any of this because the Republican Party would be obsolete.
Paladin
(28,257 posts)No one will ever say it better than that. Thanks and profound gratitude (once again) to The Rude Pundit.
noiretextatique
(27,275 posts)ever. i was in gay bar last night arguing about reagan with the resident straight white male. he claimed carter was weak, and good old ronnie was great. LOL...fucker. several of my friends asked me tone it done, BUT this is the same asshole who ignored AIDS, so i told them to fuck off. don't talk shit in MY house!
LLD
(136 posts)Joe Madison - "The Black Eagle"
Quinnipiac, the pollster said survey found Pres. Obama is worse president since WWII. Well, someone responded. What do you think?
Open letter to Quinnipiac:
Quinnipiac you bastards.
Obama the worst President? Hardly!!!.
Obama caught the Times Square Bomber in 52 hours; you bastards.
Obama caught the Boston Marathon Bombers in less that 10 days; you bastards.
Obama caught Bin Laden in 2 years; something Bush could not do in 8; you bastards.
Obama caught the Benghazi attackers in 2 years; you bastards.
Obama got rid of Gaddaffi without one loss of American life; you bastards; it took Bush $3 Trillion to get rid of Saddam; and 4000 American lives.
Obama got rid of Sarin, GB, VX in Syria without firing a shot; you bastards.
Obama has 50 plus months of private sector job growth; you bastards.
The damned stock market is within 1000 points of tripling under Obama since the March 8, 2009 low; that means $3000 is now worth $9000; $30,000 is now worth $90,000; $90,000 is worth $270,000; $270,000 is now worth $810,000; $30 billion is now worth $90 billion; you bastards.
Corporate profits are at record highs under Obama; you bastards.
Obama has 50 plus months without a double dip recession; you bastards.
Obama has given us 9 million new jobs; you bastards.
Inflation is at or below the Fed's 2% for 50 plus months; under Obama; which means borrowing costs are low and cities, counties and states can borrow at low rates for capital projects; you bastards.
Obama has given 8 million Americans Healthcare; Bush = 0; Bush II =0; Reagan =0; Ford=0; Nixon =0
By any measure Obama is the best President since Kennedy; all while getting unprecedented obstruction from Boehner, McConnell, and the "Hate Obama First Crowd;" you bastards.
Do a poll on that crowd that said they would deny Obama any victory the very night of the 2008 Inaugural Ball. You never heard of that did you Quinnipiac? Sure, you didn't you bastards. Now you have, so do it.
We black people and white people of good will are shaking with rage as you try and smear this President; and we are not going to stand for it. We are tired of being nice as you and Boehner crap on our President.
Quinnipiac, we know that you rated in the bottom half of polls during the 2012 Presidential Polls; hardly a reliable source.
#JoeMadison #PresidentObama #Obama #Quinnipiac #Benghazi
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Joe-Madison-The-Black-Eagle/67284357124?fref=nf
librechik
(30,674 posts)thx again for the terrific writing and thx for posting, meegbear!
Cha
(297,211 posts)so? Rofl.. Quinnipiac polled a bunch of crystal ballers?
sofa king
(10,857 posts)I know this is preaching to the choir, but more than once now I've tried to put the magnitude of the Shrub Disaster into perspective here at DU.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=302153
George W. Bush is the worst President ever, without question, and it should be without debate. Why? Because George W. Bush did all of the worst things that all of the worst Presidents have done, and screwed it up bigger, killed more people, ruined more lives, and stole more land and homes than any of them--and probably more than the rest of those chumps put together.