CNN Poll: Obama Ratings At Historic High

Public approval ratings of President-elect Barack Obama are sky-high according to a poll released this morning by CNN/Opinion Research Corporation. The survey found that a staggering 79% of those queried approve of the way Obama has handled the transition so far. A mere 18% disapprove. President-elect Obama's approval mark is 14 points higher than the comparable number for Bush in 2000 and 17 points higher than former President Bill Clinton's approval rating in 1992.

CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider said: "An... approval rating of seventy-nine percent [is] the sort of rating you see when the public rallies around a President after a national disaster. To many Americans, the Bush administration was a national disaster." 

Amen to that, Mr. Schneider.

You Get What You Pay For. Well, maybe not always...

Poor CNN. They spent all that money on a new poll conducted on their behalf by Opinion Research Corp and then they couldn't bring themselves to use it. Although the poll results were released yesterday afternoon around 3pm ET, Campbell Brown's prime time program at 8pm ET never mentioned it. Instead, Ms. Brown briefly cited CNN's so-called 'poll of polls' (some sort of average of selected polls, but they never tell us which ones).

Why would CNN not use its own poll?

Could it be that the reason CNN chose not to use its own poll was because that poll's results don't fit CNN's predetermined narrative about this election? After all, the CNN/Opinion Research poll showed Obama with a 7 point lead over McCain (51% to 44%), a lead outside the margin of error. CNN's concocted 'poll of polls' gave Obama a five point lead (48% to 43%). That is barely inside the margin of error, allowing the CNN chattering classes to portray the race as a tie.

I guess if you are doggedly determined to present the 2008 presidential contest as a horse race that is 'virtually tied' even the respected polls you pay for can be tossed in the trash if they don't support the narrative. Facts cannot be allowed to get in the way of the network story line.

So much for the 'best political team on television'.