You love him really

[liberty]

"....

In 1980, Ronald "Winner Of The Cold War" Reagan won 50.7% of the popular vote, with a third party candidate in the race (John Anderson) who garnered 6.6% of the popular vote....

Jim is there any way we the people can establish a Reagan appreciation day, perhaps on his birthday? I didn’t agree with him on his economic philosophy, but he was the most important President since George Washington. Washington laid the foundation for freedom in the US and around the world, but Reagan, because of his courage and determination, saved freedom from obliteration.

[Scooter]

the most important President since George Washington

[Lord Jim]

Jim is there any way we the people can establish a Reagan appreciation day,

Lib, as far as I'm concerned, everyday is "Reagan Appreciation Day"

[Andrew D]

I think the key number is the one that says Obama's approval rating is up to 57% -- this indicates that whether you voted for him or not, you want him to succeed at the big issues the country/world face.

That is counterfactual spin. What the polls measure is how well people think that Obama is actually doing his job, not whether they "want him to succeed".

I can certainly understand the desire to spin the polls as measuring whether people "want him to succeed" rather than what they really do measure: the level of approval of his actual job performance. After all, those polls show that majorities of respondents approve of how Obama is actually doing his job. And margins between approval and disapproval of how Obama is actually doing his job range from 8% to 16% and average over 11%.

What the polls actually measure:

--> Washington Post - ABC News, CNN / ORC International, and Pew Research Center all ask whether respondents "approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president".

--> NBC News / Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News both ask whether respondents "approve or disapprove of the job Barack Obama is doing as president".

--> Gallup measures "the percentage of Americans who approve or disapprove of the job Barack Obama is doing as president."

--> Rasmussen measures the percentage of voters who "at least somewhat approve of President Obama's job performance."

The poll results (approval % - disapproval % (margin %)):

Pew Research Center: 55% - 39% (16%)
Gallup: 54% - 39% (15%)
Washington Post - ABC News: 54% 42% (12%)
NBC News / Wall Street Journal: 53% - 43% (10%)
Bloomberg: 53% - 44% (9%)
CNN / ORC International: 52% - 43% (9%)
Rasmussen: 53% - 45% (8%)
Average: 53.4% - 42.1% (11.3%)

[Andrew D]

Jim is there any way we the people can establish a Reagan appreciation day,

Lib, as far as I'm concerned, everyday is "Reagan Appreciation Day"

Well, it would be charitable to describe him as an everyday President ....

[Long Run]

What the polls measure is how well people think that Obama is actually doing his job, not whether they "want him to succeed".

I have seen approval ratings as high as 57% recently. This raises the question of how his ratings climbed about 6-8 points, in a short span of a couple of months, when nothing has changed in either the R or D approach, the economy has not gotten better, no major policies have been implemented (I think the polls predate the Bush tax cut expiration/adoption). One factor is that he did a good job in addressing the Newtown tragedy, but that is already quickly fading from the national discussion. However, if you look back to Clinton's or Bush's reelections, you will also see a post election approval bounce of several points. To me, this indicates that many of the moderates who did not have a strong preference for one or the other candidate, give the reelected president the benefit of doubt and say they think he is doing a good job because they want him to do a good job. Ultimately, the approval numbers end up where they end up based on the body of the president's work.

[Gob]

Congress is more popular than...

Telemarketers (45-35)

North Korea (61-26)

The Ebola virus (53-25)

Meth labs (60-21)

Communism (57-23)

Gonorrhoea (53-28)

Source: Public Policy Polling

[Andrew D]

It is true that Ronald "I Owe My Bogus Reputation To Mikhail Gorbachev" Reagan managed to eke out a minuscule victory in the 1980 election. And he promptly -- despite Democrats' desperately trying to reign in his profligate spending -- tripled the national debt.

Bravo, Nancy! Bravo!

What matters most about the Reagan presidency is perfectly encapsulated in "the incident at a photoshoot at the president's beloved ranch in Santa Barbara, also in 1984, when a reporter called out a question about arms control and received this response from the leader of the free world:

R.R: 'Well, we uh, well... I guess, uh, well, we uh ...'
Nancy Reagan: (sotto voce): 'We're doing the best we can.'
R.R.: (with a big smile): 'We're doing the best we can!'"

That was the essence of the Reagan presidency: "Well, we uh, well ... I guess, uh, well, we uh ...."

[Long Run]

Reagan managed to eke out a minuscule victory in the 1980 election

? ? ?



Reagan 50.8%
Carter 41.0%
Anderson 6.6%

[Andrew D]

The subject under discussion is the "majority" of the popular vote.

You say 0.8% over half.

Lord Jim says 0.7% over half.

I say that either 0.8% over half or 0.7% over half is minuscule.

Obama won by a margin of either double Reagan's (by Lord Jim's figure) or 1-3/4 times Reagan's (by your figure).

Either way, when it comes to the popular vote -- you know, the vote of the people who actually matter: the people -- Obama kicked Nancy-Boy's senile old ass.

[Gob]

What was the turnout in these elections?