Day: June 7, 2010
To Helen Gone
Sometimes when you’re upset by the news,
It’s not wise to reveal your own views.
Old Helen Thomas
Got handed her ass
For making remarks about Jews.
Poll of Polls: Obama’s Favorability in California at 59%
The average of the four most recent polls on Pres. Obama’s approval rating in California is 58.75 percent:
USC/L.A.Times, May 19-26; Rasmussen Reports, May 24; Daily Kos/Research 2000, May 17; Public Policy Institute of California, May 9-16
2008 election: Obama 61 percent, McCain 37 percent
USC/L.A. Times says Obama is seen favorably by 59 percent and unfavorably by 36 percent. Fifty-four percent want to elect a senator that will support his policies (with 44 percent “strongly” holding that view) while 35 percent don’t, with 11 percent undecided.
Rasmussen says that 55 percent approve of Obama’s performance while 42 percent do not.
Research 2000 says Obama is seen favorably by 62 percent and unfavorably by 33 percent with 5 percent undecided. Fifty-two percent say they would be more likely to vote for a candidate that supports or would work to improve the new health care plan while 37 percent would be more likely to vote for someone who would repeal it completely.
PPIC says 59 percent approve of the way Obama is doing his job while 37 percent disapprove, with 4 percent undecided. That’s 13 point drop in his approval rating since a year ago.
CA Primary: Don’t Buy the Beltway Pundits’ Hype, Dems Looking Good in November Matchups
By a whopping 27 points, California independent voters want a U.S. senator who supports Pres. Obama. In the governor’s race, independents support Brown over eMeg, 48%-30%.
When it comes to elections, as far as the national media is concerned, if there’s no horse race, there’s no story — so take with large measures of salt the punditry you hear on cable news tomorrow night about the supposed vulnerability of Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., or the surging popularity of eMeg Whitman, the eBay billionaire who’s spent $500,000 a day in the Republican gubernatorial primary campaign.
Tea bagging has not caught on in California like it has in other parts of the country, in spite of the fact that Russo Marsh + Rogers, the Republican Party consulting firm that operates Tea Party Express, is based in Sacramento.
Granted, all the energy going into the vote tomorrow at the top of the ballot is among the Republicans, but this is because their Democratic opponents are running virtually unopposed. Other than fundraising, both Sen. Boxer and Attorney General Jerry Brown, the former governor who’s running for governor again, have hardly begun campaigning. Neither of them has yet to spend a dime on television ads, the only vehicle for getting political messages out statewide.
Based on recent polling it appears that the Republicans’ two biggest spenders, eMeg, one-time CEO of eBay, and disgraced former HP CEO Carly Fiorina, will trounce their opponents tomorrow and become the GOP candidates for governor and senator, respectively, in the general. Whitman has spent nearly $80 million of her own money, so far, and Fiorina has spent a third of the $21 million fortune she received as golden parachute when the HP board fired her in 2005.
Despite the well-publicized unrest and anger in the fly-over states, internals in a Los Angeles Times-USC poll that came out around Memorial Day show that Brown and Boxer have the wind at their backs heading into the general election:
