The Numbers - Some left-blogs

The Numbers - Some left-blogs have been obsessing to an unnatural extent over the fluctuations of the various polls that have shown the president is (gasp) dropping from "immortal" to "human". The mantra for many of these bloggers is "Watch the GOP shrug and say 'it doesn't matter'". They have a good point; that's what we'll say.

Because it's the truth.

I was giving Sean Hannity a rare listen on Friday night. He pointed out that, if you look at poll results for sitting presidents taken 14 months before the elections over the past forty years, very few have had numbers as good as Bush currently enjoys.

• In September of 1995, Clinton had worse numbers than Bush has today.
• In September, 1993, Ronald Reagan had a little over half Bush's approval rating.
• Richard Nixon's approval in September of 1971 was lower than Bush's today - and 14 months later when he faced the original Howard Dean, he scored a historic landslide.
• In September of 1967, Lyndon Johnson's ratings were lower - but he opted not to run.

In addition, said Hannity, John F. Kennedy's numbers in September of 1963 - the month before his assassination - were on par with Bush's current numbers.

I'm not going to presume that the Democrats' fixation on poll fluctuations is a sign of desperation. I just can't think of a better answer...

Posted by Mitch at September 30, 2003 06:01 AM