Dobbs said poll shows Obama's “honeymoon with Americans on the economy” is ending -- but poll hasn't changed
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Lou Dobbs claimed that “President Obama's honeymoon with Americans on the economy appears to be at an end,” asserting that the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll showed that “only 54 percent of Americans say the president has the right goals and policies for this country.” However, the survey results for the same question from the previous two months' polls are nearly identical.
On the March 4 edition of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, host Lou Dobbs claimed that “President Obama's honeymoon with Americans on the economy appears to be at an end; the president failing to win broad support for his economic policies, despite his personal popularity.” Dobbs continued: “The latest Wall Street Journal/NBC poll showing only 54 percent of Americans say the president has the right goals and policies for this country.” However, contrary to Dobbs' assertion that the February WSJ/NBC News poll shows that Obama's “honeymoon with Americans on the economy appears to be at an end,” the survey results for the same question from the January and December polls are nearly identical.
The WSJ/NBC poll, conducted February 26-March 1, asks respondents: “And how confident are you that Barack Obama has the right set of goals and policies to be president of the United States?” The respondents who answered “extremely confident” and “quite confident” totaled 54 percent, the figure Dobbs cited. But the same percentage of respondents answered “extremely confident” or “quite confident” when the poll was conducted in January and December. Indeed, the results for those responses have not changed significantly over the past three polls.
From the February 26-March 1, 2009, WSJ/NBC poll:
From the January 9-12, 2009, WSJ/NBC poll:
Contrary to Dobbs' claim that the poll showed that Obama's “honeymoon with Americans on the economy appears to be at an end,” the March 4 Wall Street Journal article accompanying the poll asserted that “President Barack Obama enjoys widespread backing from a frightened American public for his ambitious, front-loaded agenda, a new poll indicates”:
He is more popular than ever, Americans are hopeful about his leadership, and opposition Republicans are getting drubbed in public opinion, the new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll suggests.
From the March 4 edition of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight:
DOBBS: Good evening, everybody. President Obama's honeymoon with Americans on the economy appears to be at an end; the president failing to win broad support for his economic policies, despite his personal popularity. The latest Wall Street Journal/NBC poll showing only 54 percent of Americans say the president has the right goals and policies for this country.