September 9, 2014 by David K. Sutton
I Approve This Message On Job Approval
Events that have nothing to do with a president can cause his approval rating to increase or decrease, and it is because of this that it’s safe to say “job approval” is a meaningless statistic. Okay fine, I understand it’s not meaningless, because perception matters, but can we at least acknowledge that perception in this case is based on bullshit? Take a look at President Reagan’s approval rating. It averaged around 53% for his entire presidency, but it was up to 73% after he was shot in an assassination attempt. Why would that affect his job approval rating? Could it be that it’s a bullshit statistic? Or let’s look at the 80 to 90% approval (peaking at 92%…WTF were people smoking?) President George W. Bush saw after 9/11. What exactly did he do to deserve that unusually high approval? I’ll tell you what. He presided over the worst terrorist attack on American soil, then he got on a bullhorn at Ground Zero, pumped his chest, talked tough, and America approved. Yeah, I’d say the “job approval” statistic is based on bullshit, wouldn’t you?