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July 22, 2002

Why Zogby Bush Polls are Better

There has been some questions on why Zogby polls have shown sharp decline in Bush's job approval ratings, while other polls (say Gallup) have shown Bush holding onto steadier support. The answer is pretty simple. Other polls generally ask a binary yes or no question on whether people approve of Bush's job performance. In an era when saying you don't approve of the President makes you sound like you are giving aid and comfort to the Taliban, it's not surprising that this is a poor way to gauge support.

Zogby breaks down responses into four categories-- "Excellent" "Good" "Fair" "Poor", which tracks more subtle movements of opinion. When he is compared to other polls, the Excellent and Good categories are added together for approval and the Fair and Poor for non-approval. But as this table shows, the Enron-WorldCom scandals have not dented Bush's core fanatic support in the last few months, but there has been a large shift from those deeming his performance "good" now thinking he is doing only a "fair" job.

Late Monday Addendum: A new Zogby poll shows Bush's positives at the same 62% as last week, but another question, would people reelect Bush, is at 47%-- essentially where he was before 911.

Posted by Nathan at July 22, 2002 09:23 AM

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