What will be the result of Gallup's Presidential Favorability polls on Monday?

The election is over and this question essentially amounts to "Bush bashing". No wonder I am still getting obnoxious email about Obama from die-hard McCain supporters. Hey Guys! The election is OVER and it's time to cool it. Now that the two plus year election is over, we are supposed to pull together as patriotic Americans and support our new President-elect. John McCain was adamant about this in his eloquent concession speech, and I admire him for it.

If presidential favorability ratings are still deemed important to current news, separate this question into an Obama favorability rating and a Bush Favorability rating. As it stands, this is a NAH NAHHHHH DA NAH NAHHHH question: Obama is more favorable than Bush. And right this minute, that isn't news at all....

@randburg - I'm sorry you feel that way.. I've made no secret of the fact that I support Obama, but I also do my best to be respectful to both sides of the debate. I don't believe its teasing to compare the poll numbers though. The fact is we have a very unpopular president right now. That's the main reason that the Democrats did so well this election -- his unpopularity led the movement for change and is in part what underpins Obamas extraordinarily high favorability numbers. I would expect to see those numbers tied together-- so if Bush approval ticks upward, Obama's approval will tick downward. Similarly, if people are impressed with Obama's transition, will that make them evaluate their opinion of Bush in anyway? [As a personal aside, I think Obama's polling is ridiculously high -- as soon as people begin to realize that he can't wave a magic wand and fix the economy in his first week -- or even during the transition and then his polling will drop dramatically]

This is in no way meant to be divisive or partisan, but there are some hard political facts here and measuring these two polls together does in part, I think, get at the heart of American opinion during this transition. After a cursory search through the news, I found:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/111838/Obama-Bush-Contrast-Popularity.aspx
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article5127106.ece
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/10/bush.transition.poll/
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/2008-11-10-poll-obama_N.htm
http://coloradoindependent.com/14856/obama-favorability-soars-after-election-as-bush-rating-plummets

Must agree with randburg its not really news worthy and its like trying to chose chalk and cheese

I agree with Jenni. News programs are spending considerable amounts of time covering the incoming president and monitoring the outgoing president. I think it is interesting to see if Bush being very helpful to Obama would increase Bush's approval ratings. We are still talking about the President and President elect of the United States of America, and that IS very newsworthy.

My friends Jenni, Curios, and Destry are all correct -- each in different ways, and I appreciate all of their opinions.

As she states, Jenni has both been very open about her Obama support and very fair in trying to respect both sides of the debate. I admire her stance and the way she has handled it. The articles she offers are very interesting and worth reading. I STAND CORRECTED that other news sources are also making this most unfortunate connection between an unpopular retiring President and a very popular-at-the-moment President Elect with promise. Yes, that is certainly why we elected him: we are hopeful...

Curios is right that we are comparing chalk and cheese: comparing an unpopular outgoing President with an untested incoming President-elect -- about whom we are hopeful -- is not very productive, realistic, or likely to produce any factual answers.

Destry is also right. I had lunch today with a prominent Dallas psychologist who brought to my attention that Bush's approval ratings are very likely to rise by the innauguation, for exactly the reasons Destry cited: Bush being very helpful to Obama.

Jenni's aside is also "right on":

[As a personal aside, I think Obama's polling is ridiculously high -- as soon as people begin to realize that he can't wave a magic wand and fix the economy in his first week -- or even during the transition and then his polling will drop dramatically]

I think that most of my hubdub friends know that I lived in South Africa between 1968 and 1995. I saw the transition from apartheid to Mandela's election firsthand. The final election was between Mandela's ANC and DeKlerk's ruling party. DeKlerk had made the election possible, and there was great respect for both candidates. (After the election, they both jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize). The point here is that both candidates made absurd promises to the electorate that virtually promised free jobs, free houses, free car in the garage, etc, etc, etc. And of course, none of that was possible, regardless of who won. Whoever won the election was going to LOSE THE FIRST YEAR. The ANC promised one million free new homes to be built in one year: nine small show homes were completed at the end of that year.

The point here is that Jenni is right that Obama can't wave a magic wand and (1) fix the economy, (2) get the US out of Iraq instantaneously, (3) correct all the ills that the black electorate expect him to fix, (4) restore America's prestige among foreign powers in a matter or months, etc. Just as his favourability rating is inflated at this time, his favorability rating IS likely to drop again, due to no fault of his own.

And lastly, I think I am right too. I don't think this continued trend of Bush-bashing, Obama-bashing, and/or McCain bashing is doing America any good. I would have thought that we would have nationally pulled together again after the election. Obviously I was wrong: God forbid that we need another national disaster to get us to pull together again.

Meanwhile, each of us can do our part, including (but not limited to) (1) stop forwarding negative political emails (most of which are anti-Obama), and (2) I think we can drop irritating questions like this one and the one that refers to the "failed 2008 presidential candidate McCain".

Well said randburg you are right on all parts here, its nice that you can see all points of view, in a objective angle.

I like this question... but if I don't like it, Hubdub allows me to create questions that do interest me.

What exactly are they favorable of? He hasnt done anything yet! If you ask me i think preidents should start out with a 0 approval rating. Then as they do things, people should be asked about there opinions on such and such thing that the president did. They take the average approval ratings from all these things the president did and thats what we should use.
Randburg i totally agree with you. As much as i dont like it Obama won. I am going to go by my methods so so far, in my mind, he has a approval rating of 0 for me. Also you are right that when people realize that obama has NO power over the world economy his poll numbers may take a hit. In fact, obama is going to be even less powerful than bush because bush is leading over a country that has a democratic congress, which he can veto against (even though he has yet to veto a single bill from the democratic congress) and that, odds are, the bills presented before him are going to have to lean somewhat right to get his approval!

@randburg:

That is a lot of stuff to say. I will remind you of what you said in http://www.hubdub.com/m20920/Will_the_loser_of_the_2008_US_election_weep_during_his_concession_speech_
"And if John McCain should win, a recovery team and ambulance should be standing by to get him to emergency in a hurry..."

You know, here's a question that might be worth asking, though it would take a bit of research: What will be Obama's approval rating the first day after he takes office?

Also, just to satisfy dragonfang (among other critics of the question), would it be possible to create a question comparing Bush to Congress? I believe the legislature has also set new lows for approval during this session - wasn't it down to 8% at one point? - so even Bush looks awesome in comparison. While l lean Democrat, I think that the incumbents on both sides of the aisle have done nothing useful in the last two years. :p

Thank you Curios; I appreciate it.

@ friend fingers: I will look forward to more questions from you.

@ friend dragonfangXL: I think you have a great idea. A president (or any politician for that matter) should earn a favorability rating based on accomplishments, that are rated and approved by fellow Americans. At this point, Obama's favorability rating is merely a residual popularity rating -- left over from the election (which is neither good nor bad). If the powers that be insist on a question about favorability rating, how about measuring something really significant, for example: Bush's popularity rating for third week November 2000 to Obama's popularity rating for third week November 2008. And keep this question running weekly for a while. I think we would be comparing "apples to apples" FIRST for anticipation of the first term, SECOND for the innauguation, and THIRD for what actually happens during the 1st 100 days. Would anyone else find this interesting?

@notablenotices: "And if John McCain should win, a recovery team and ambulance should be standing by to get him to emergency in a hurry..."posted 1 hour ago
Add your commentThank you Curios; I appreciate it.

@ friend fingers: I will look forward to more questions from you.

@ friend dragonfangXL: I think you have a great idea. A president (or any politician for that matter) should earn a favorability rating based on accomplishments, that are rated and approved by fellow Americans. At this point, Obama's favorability rating is merely a residual popularity rating -- left over from the election (which is neither good nor bad). If the powers that be insist on a question about favorability rating, how about measuring something really significant, for example: Bush's popularity rating for third week November 2000 to Obama's popularity rating for third week November 2008. And keep this question running weekly for a while. I think we would be comparing "apples to apples" FIRST for anticipation of the first term, SECOND for the innauguation, and THIRD for what actually happens during the 1st 100 days. Would anyone else find this interesting?

@notablenotices: "And if John McCain should win, a recovery team and ambulance should be standing by to get him to emergency in a hurry..."

You have pulled this quote of mine out of context. The comment was made BEFORE the election and was a part of a comment that poked gentle fun at all of the candidates. Did you honestly think I intended Hillary Clinton to sit beside a wailing wall all evening?

The election is OVER WITH and I am personally very pleased that John McCain will remain a forceful and vibrant element in Congress and American politics. If he would be offered an even more powerful position in the new administration, that would please me as well.

I'm sorry everyone: MY CUT AND PASTE WENT TOTALLY HAYWIRE. Here is how Comment 11 should have read:
-----------------------------------

Thank you Curios; I appreciate it.

@ friend fingers: I will look forward to more questions from you.

@ friend dragonfangXL: I think you have a great idea. A president (or any politician for that matter) should earn a favorability rating based on accomplishments, that are rated and approved by fellow Americans. At this point, Obama's favorability rating is merely a residual popularity rating -- left over from the election (which is neither good nor bad). If the powers that be insist on a question about favorability rating, how about measuring something really significant, for example: Bush's popularity rating for third week November 2000 to Obama's popularity rating for third week November 2008. And keep this question running weekly for a while. I think we would be comparing "apples to apples" FIRST for anticipation of the first term, SECOND for the innauguation, and THIRD for what actually happens during the 1st 100 days. Would anyone else find this interesting?

@notablenotices: "And if John McCain should win, a recovery team and ambulance should be standing by to get him to emergency in a hurry..."

You have pulled this quote of mine out of context. The comment was made BEFORE the election and was a part of a comment that poked gentle fun at all of the candidates. Did you honestly think I intended Hillary Clinton to sit beside a wailing wall all evening?

The election is OVER WITH and I am personally very pleased that John McCain will remain a forceful and vibrant element in Congress and American politics. If he would be offered an even more powerful position in the new administration, that would please me as well.