Chuck Todd, MSNBC's mascot and member in excellent standing of the Idiot Punditocracy, is an expert at manipulating polls and statistics to make specious points that support the Beltway elites' preferences. Necessarily, Chuckie must keep marginalizing the minority liberal view within the Beltway which, according to supercilious colleague Jonathan Capehart, is at best "amusing." With a surprising turn of imagination, the typically bland Chuckie has lately turned feral toward liberals. First, he offered the theory of a liberal cabal inhabiting the general geographic perimeter between Washington and New York City. This so-called "liberal elite" as Chuckie describes it no doubt includes everyone he despises in his political milieu — ah, let me guess: Chris Hayes (he might get his own prime time show b/c for one he's twice as smart as Chuckie) and The Nation crowd (a backstop to Chuckie's pals at POLITICO), columnists E.J. Dionne and Princeton egghead Paul Krugman, Keith, Big Eddie, the New York Times, and of course, Rachel.
To my knowledge, Chuckie's floated this "liberal elite" nonsense twice now in so many weeks, the second while dismissing any notion that the President is losing support with his base, noting that only the "liberal elite" in the D.C.-NY corridor is unhappy (I forget what disparaging term he used) while the "basers" as Big Eddie calls them are staunchly behind the President. Chuckie pulled out some poll or another to make his specious point. It's a HOOT to see Chuckie 'milquetoast' Todd get so upset about liberals, "amusing" indeed. But the point is, NOTHING Chuckie says should be taken at face value. EVERYTHING must be verified, if it's even worth the trouble. This story in Talking Points Memo completely flips and contradicts Chuckie's claim about the President's support being strong in his liberal base:
After weeks of prolonged negotiations with Republicans, proposed dealmaking around the federal debt and attempts to reign in future deficits, and in the wake of the strong push back from Congressional Democrats against a 'grand bargain' between the President and the House GOP leadership, a new CNN poll shows that support from the political left flank is starting to leave Obama.
President Obama registered an approval rating in line with other current polls, with 45% of the populace approving of his performance and 54% disapproving, slightly outside the TPM Poll Average of 45.0% approval and 50.1% disapproval.
But the troubling news for the President was within that approval number, where there is a growing number among his base who are disappointed: his rating among self-described liberals in the poll was only 71%, along with 80% self-IDed Democrats in the approval column.
From the CNN report:
"...drill down into that number and you'll see signs of a stirring discontent on the left," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "Thirty-eight percent say they disapprove because President Obama has been too liberal, but 13 percent say they disapprove of Obama because he has not been liberal enough — nearly double what it was in May, when the question was last asked, and the first time that number has hit double digits in Obama's presidency."
It should also be noted that complaints of the President not being liberal enough were not just relegated to liberals themselves. 14% of self-described moderates who disapproved of Obama cited the same reason, and even 9% of conservatives.
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