{"id":5331,"date":"2005-09-22T14:04:24","date_gmt":"2005-09-22T18:04:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=5331"},"modified":"2005-09-22T14:04:24","modified_gmt":"2005-09-22T18:04:24","slug":"if-only-this-were-september-2004-not-september-2005","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/if-only-this-were-september-2004-not-september-2005\/","title":{"rendered":"If only this were September 2004, not September 2005"},"content":{"rendered":"

SurveyUSA has another one of those fun-filled 50-state polls<\/a>, this time returning to the subject of the president’s approval rating, state-by-state.<\/p>\n

The top five<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Utah — 63% approve, 36% disapprove
\nIdaho — 57% approve, 40% disapprove
\nNebraska — 55% approve, 42% disapprove
\nMississippi — 55% approve, 43% disapprove
\nWyoming — 55% approve, 44% disapprove<\/p>\n

The bottom five<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Vermont — 29% approve, 69% disapprove
\nRhode Island — 30% approve, 69% disapprove
\nNew York — 32% approve, 66% disapprove
\nMassachusetts — 33% approve, 66% disapprove
\nMaine — 33% approve, 64% disapprove<\/p>\n

Is it me, or is there a certain geographic similarity with many of the least “red” states?<\/p>\n

In any event, there’s plenty to chew on here, but my preferred way of looking at this is comparing the results of the poll against the presidential election last year.
\n
\nIn November, Bush won 31 states on route to getting 286 electoral votes. About a year later, the president has an approval rating above 50% in just 10 states<\/i> (Alabama, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, Wyoming).<\/p>\n

Using these numbers as a guide, if the election were held today, and Bush lost the states in which voters disapprove of his job performance, his support would only generate<\/a> 85 electoral votes — 185 fewer than he’d need.<\/p>\n

In fact, in several “battleground” states, it isn’t even close. Bush’s support has completely fallen apart in states like Ohio (61% disapprove), Florida (58% disapprove), Virginia (58% disapprove), and Colorado (56% disapprove).<\/p>\n

Even in Texas, Bush’s support has fallen to 52-45. Let me say that again — 45% of Texans<\/i> express disapproval<\/i> for Bush<\/i>.<\/p>\n

No wonder Republicans are starting to wonder if the president is a political liability<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SurveyUSA has another one of those fun-filled 50-state polls, this time returning to the subject of the president’s approval rating, state-by-state. The top five: Utah — 63% approve, 36% disapprove Idaho — 57% approve, 40% disapprove Nebraska — 55% approve, 42% disapprove Mississippi — 55% approve, 43% disapprove Wyoming — 55% approve, 44% disapprove The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}