CNN: More View Obama's First 6 Months A Failure Than Bush's

August 6th, 2009 10:07 AM

Here's a shocking new poll result from CNN that seems almost guaranteed to not get a lot of attention from the media: more people believe Barack Obama's presidency is a failure after six months in office than felt that way after George W. Bush's first half year.

Maybe even more shocking: the poll included an oversampling of African-Americans.

Impossible?

Well, the good folks at Real Clear Politics made this discovery on page two of CNN's PDF released at 6AM Thursday:

3. Do you consider the first six months of the Obama administration to be a success or a failure?
July 31-Aug. 3
2009
Success 51%
Failure 37%
Too soon to tell (vol.) 11%
No opinion 1%

This is how Bush faired in a similar poll done by CNN after his first six months:

Bush Administration First Six Months: Do you consider the first six months of the Bush administration to be a -- ?

Success 56%
Failure  32%
Too soon to tell (vol.)  7%
No opinion  5%

2001 Aug 3-5*

Isn't that interesting?

Yet, maybe more curious was the following on page one of the PDF:

Interviews with 1,136 adult Americans, including an oversample
of African-Americans, conducted by telephone by Opinion
Research Corporation on July 31-August 3, 2009.

Why would they oversample African-Americans?

Here are some more interesting finds:

4. Since he became president, do you think Barack Obama has tried to handle more issues than he
should have, or hasn't he done that?
July 31-Aug. 3
More issues than he should have 65%
Has not done that 30%
No opinion 4%

19. Do you think Barack Obama’s policies have made the economy better, or don’t you think so?
(ASKED OF HALF SAMPLE. RESULTS BASED ON 506 INTERVIEWS IN VERSION A --
SAMPLING ERROR: +/- 4.5 PERCENTAGE POINTS.)
July 31-Aug. 3
2009
Made economy better 44%
Don’t think so 51%
No opinion 5%

Wow! So 65 percent believe he's taken too much on, while 51 percent don't think his policies have made the economy better.

Makes one wonder how this shocking poll will be covered, even by the folks at CNN.

Maybe more importantly, if it does get covered at all, will Obama and his media minions blame it on right-wing operatives much as they are protestors showing up at town hall meetings?

Stay tuned.