The All-Too-Familiar 'Political Racial Divide' Story Returns

I believe The New York Times did a story a few weeks ago on this topic as well, but now others are talking about the "white flight" from President Barack Obama, as with this story from ABC News. But notice Obama's approval ratings in the polling data ABC uses:

It is 53 percent overall -- or the percentage of the vote he got in Nov. '08 -- and it is 44 percent among white people -- or the percentage of the white vote he got that November. That 44 percent, by the way, represents the highest percentage of white voters garnered by any Democratic presidential candidate in the general election since Jimmy Carter, meaning the black guy was embraced my more whites than the white candidates before him. According to another break down of polling data, about nine of out 10 Democrats approve of him while 23 percent of Republicans do, the largest partisan gap recorded by Gallup in its history. Most white voters are Republican -- which means it can easily be assumed that they believe Obama is taking the country in the wrong direction and are judging him on that, not his skin color. As I said during the '08 presidential elections, Obama's support or opposition is not primarily motivated by race, even if there will always be a twinge of that in the far corners of the electorate.

In general, I hate the growing reliance upon polls by news organizations. I think it dumbs down journalism because polls are malleable by a variety of things that can't even be captured by the polls. When Obama's poll numbers were in the high '60s early in his presidency, it didn't mean he was doing a great job as president, it meant most of the country was still in the glow of a historic election in the same way George W. Bush's all-time-high 90 percent approval rating was a result of the aftermath of the response to the Sept. 11 attacks. History has shown us that presidents get positive reviews when the economy is strong -- no matter their policies -- and negative reviews when it is not. I'm hoping more of us in the media can get back to examining the affect of policies, and Obama's most important policy to date -- his unpopular stimulus plan -- lifted the country out of recession in the short term, creating between 1 million to 2 million jobs, while the long-term effects won't be known for awhile. We need to talk about policy affects more than poll numbers because we will need to know which policies work and which don't when we face these kinds of tough times again.

It is 53 percent overall -- or the percentage of the vote he got in Nov. '08 -- and it is 44 percent among white people -- or the percentage of the white vote he got that November. That 44 percent, by the way, represents the highest percentage of white voters garnered by any Democratic presidential candidate in the general election since Jimmy Carter, meaning the black guy was embraced my more whites than the white candidates before him. According to another break down of polling data, about nine of out 10 Democrats approve of him while 23 percent of Republicans do, the largest partisan gap recorded by Gallup in its history. Most white voters are Republican -- which means it can easily be assumed that they believe Obama is taking the country in the wrong direction and are judging him on that, not his skin color. As I said during the '08 presidential elections, Obama's support or opposition is not primarily motivated by race, even if there will always be a twinge of that in the far corners of the electorate.

In general, I hate the growing reliance upon polls by news organizations. I think it dumbs down journalism because polls are malleable by a variety of things that can't even be captured by the polls. When Obama's poll numbers were in the high '60s early in his presidency, it didn't mean he was doing a great job as president, it meant most of the country was still in the glow of a historic election in the same way George W. Bush's all-time-high 90 percent approval rating was a result of the aftermath of the response to the Sept. 11 attacks. History has shown us that presidents get positive reviews when the economy is strong -- no matter their policies -- and negative reviews when it is not. I'm hoping more of us in the media can get back to examining the affect of policies, and Obama's most important policy to date -- his unpopular stimulus plan -- lifted the country out of recession in the short term, creating between 1 million to 2 million jobs, while the long-term effects won't be known for awhile. We need to talk about policy affects more than poll numbers because we will need to know which policies work and which don't when we face these kinds of tough times again.