CHECK-IT-OUT at First Read: Chuck Todd breaks down the poll numbers on the latest attitudes of the American people. For the first time the GOP has higher approval numbers than Dems in some areas of concern, leading some to think that the November elections will be a tsunami win for the GOP. But as First Read asks, “… could those GOP electoral gains come from just one part of the country? The poll contains this interesting finding: The GOP has a HUGE generic-ballot edge in the South (52%-31%), but it doesn’t lead anywhere else. In the Northeast, Dems have a 55%-30% edge; in the Midwest, they lead 49%-38%; and in the West, it’s 44%-43%. Yet do keep this caveat in mind: Many of the congressional districts Republicans are targeting outside of the South resemble some of those Southern districts they’re hoping to win back in November — where you have whiter and older voters.”
Forty percent think the US is worst off since Obama’s presidency, thirty-one percent say we’re better off, and twenty-eight percent think it’s about the same. MSNBC’s Morning Joe presented these numbers this morning by lumping the 40% “worst off” with the 28% “about the same” and spun the numbers as “almost 70% of Americans don’t think the President is doing a good job.” OR we might say that 58% think Obama’s doing a good to fair job in a difficult time!
And seven out of ten say that President Obama’s performance in office has “met or exceeded their expectations,” which says that the country still trusts and believes in his presidency. We’re hangin’ in there.
Maybe it is time for the South to “do it again”. And this time we can just say “OK, buh-bye.”