Obama Approval by Region SOUTH 26% / NE 84% /MW 61% /WEST 59% /REST OF USA 67%

[emulatorloo]

http://www.dailykos.com/weeklypoll/2009/11/19

DAILY KOS WEEKLY POLL
Research 2000, MoE 2%, Nov 16, 2009 - Nov 19, 2009

----------> SOUTH 26% <------------

NE 84%
MW 61%
WEST 59%
REST OF USA 67%

So the South is really dragging his numbers down.

What does this tell us?

For one thing, there are a lot of REPUBLICANS/TEABAGGERS/FOX VIEWERS in the SOUTH. Maybe not so many in the rest of the country.

I think they are out of touch down there.

[DCBob]

1. The south is brain dead....

and is infested with racists and ignorant simple-minded rednecks easily manipulated by right-wingnut media.

[RKP5637]

21. Exactly!!! Well said!!! n/t

[vadawg]

33. rofl dude i believe you too are south of the mason dixon line

and there are a hell of a lot of idiots in monty county too...

[Sarah Ibarruri]

2. The Republicans and their right wing Democratic pals are anti-Obama of course nt

[MichiganVote]

3. it tells us they've been less affected by nafta

[tekisui]

4. No jobs in the South?

[babylonsister]

5. Oh, noes, he's tanking! Thanks for the reality check. nt

[Peacetrain]

6. Wow it really has become regionalized hasn't it

[emulatorloo]

9. Too bad the talking heads and editorial writers don't unpack this n/t

[Hamlette]

40. it's been regionalized forever

think: dixiecrats who had nothing in common with dems.

There was a wonderful rant in 2004 by some blogger after Bush was reelected wish I'd kept a link, anyway, he was yelling at the south telling them to at least consider voting for someone who was not from the south!

I think we should have let them the hell go in 1860, or before. They we would be a foreign country now. They'd send us the sheets they don't need for their Klan activities and we'd export straight jackets to them.

[opihimoimoi]

7. The South Lags behind Reason Sanity and Clarity...only place to hide with Face is DELUSION

To NOT SEE REALITY is known as Arrogantly in DENIAL among other things.

[bluestateguy]

8. So if you take out the South Obama is doing just fine

In other words, in those states that have always been loyal to this country, Obama is doing just fine.

[CTLawGuy]

10. their preachers tell them that Obama is bad

NT

[SutaUvaca]

14. This is exactly right,

if my neighbors and family are any indication.
Beckkk is one of the preachers, of course.

[tekisui]

11. That is an incredible difference.

I would like to see the numbers for all the regions on inauguration day. Did the South start very far behind, have they all lost some, did the south drop significantly? If so why?

[Cha]

12. So Kos does

national polling?

[emulatorloo]

26. Yes, they have RESEARCH 2000 do it for them.

[Cha]

28. Thanks..that should be

a poll that isn't biased.

[ananda]

13. The South has sunk again..

.. into the abyss of racism and virtual slavery.

[Hekate]

15. Well, well, well. That puts some perspective on those dropping poll numbers. Thanks. nt

[tridim]

16. That is quite incredible and sad.

Obama is immensely popular, except in the racist south.

[Egnever]

17. well and here on DU of course

he is ocorporatist stooge here most of the time as well. Or do we just have an overly large representation of southerners here?

[HughMoran]

19. We have an overtly large representation of political reactionaries here

Instant gratification, instant karma.

[HughMoran]

18. South are bigots so their numbers should NOT BE COUNTED in the total

Why should Obama be punished by racist thinking?

[JoeyT]

29. Yeah.

We're all bigots. Even the people that voted for the man.
Even those of us that aren't white.
Bigots every last one of us.

[HughMoran]

31. Sadly, it's the predominant view from where I sit

Those numbers tend to prove that out. I doubt Bill Clinton's numbers were near that low in the South.

[JoeyT]

35. Well let's just all grab the broadest brush we can find.

Sure it makes us sound like a bunch of dumbass teabaggers throwing around the "East Coast Liberal" nonsense, but that's ok. We know we have right on our side! We've got a poll of 718 people to wave around!
Clearly the views of 517 people represent an entire region.

[HughMoran]

36. No, but clearly there's a problem

You're not denying the poll numbers are you? You're not denying the racism that I experienced in Louisiana, Florida & Texas (yes, I consider the Eastern parts of Texas as the "South"), are you? Are you denying that my coworker started attacking "yankees" and told me "we're all conservative down here" within minutes of me getting off of the plane? I could go on - the white men that I met were predominantly right-wing whackos who weren't shy about sharing their racist thinking behind closed doors. Of course it's not everybody - I know there are millions of good people from the South - but the poll numbers speak for themselves and tend to back up the views I've seen when visiting.

[JoeyT]

37. Be hard for me to deny there are a bunch of racist idiots down here.

I dunno if they're in the majority. I'm pretty sure they're not *that* much of a majority. That's not a terribly large poll to base a decision on. But yeah, we have some screaming racists down here. Trust me, I know. ;)

Edited to add: It isn't *just* racism though. A lot of them hated Clinton just as much. So some of 'em are assholes and some of them are racist assholes. It's pretty tough to figure out which is which.

[HughMoran]

38. Let's hope that it gets better at some point

I know progress is slow, but perhaps someday the white men will get off the "hate train". Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving! :hug:

[onager]

20. Anecdotes from Upstate South Carolina...

During the last Xmas season. I was visiting from my job in Egypt (back in Los Angeles now).

I don't know if all this means anything. These are purely personal anecdotes, which usually mean...absolutely nothing:

a) Several of my usually GOP-voting relatives admitted to voting for Obama.

b) Went to dinner at the home of a man I've known my whole life, who is a right-wing Repub and has always been a diehard racist.

When "saying grace," he not only prayed for Obama specifically, but mentioned "our new President has a big job to do and needs a lot of help."

You could have knocked me over with a feather.

Full disclosure - I'm an atheist, so I don't pray for anybody. I am sometimes Aggressively Hopeful, though.

c) A 70-yr-old female relative came over to visit one day. Me and my Mom had some documentary about the Sixties on the TV. This relative went off on a strange tirade. She does that a lot, but usually about kids on her lawn or the neighbor's dog.

This one went something like: "I tell you, not so long ago I would not have wanted to be a black person in this part of the country. We treated those people awful. Just AWFUL, and they were our neighbors. Live right beside us. I think about that a lot here lately, and I'm really ashamed of the way we acted. Me and a lot of other people."

OK, none of this necessarily means the Winds Of Change are blowing thru my home state. But at least maybe they can feel a few Breezes Of Change down there.

[treestar]

41. Interesting. I wonder if those people felt you were someone they could

confide in. They are in a minority there and maybe avoid talking about their views generally because of that.

[David__77]

22. So southern whites, once again, are the problem.

We need a serious cultural invasion to reeducate these people.

[RKP5637]

23. But what/how will this change... it's such a sickness, so inbred and generational. The

south IMO has been backward forever but now 7x24 media and the Internet, infested with RW religion and the likes of Fox News, have given them a loud voice loved by the media to attract viewers to increase ratings and profit. I had thought naively over the decades they had improved, by man was I wrong on that one.

And they are so damn ignorant and proud of ignorance. Even presented with facts they are so delusional they cling to falsehoods. I find the south such an embarrassment to America.

[Alcibiades]

42. It's mainly old southerners

The ones too young to remember the depression, but too old to have actually gone to school after desegregation.

They will die off.

[RKP5637]

44. There is always hope, as you say. I was born just after the depression, but fortunately in

the NE. All of my views are 180 degrees opposite of these people. When I hear these people on television I cringe knowing I'm in the same age group. They are so stunningly dense, ignorant and un-American. It is chilling to listen to them let alone see them. I think you are quite correct in your analysis. I'm appalled by their behavior, their level of immaturity always amazes me. As you say, they will die off, that is fortunate and to them I say good riddance.

[Alcibiades]

46. I know it's a broad brush

There are a lot of good folks down here in that age range, but for some of them, it was George Wallace who initiated them into politics, and they really have not changed too much.

[Mythbuster]

24. Hey, it's like Fox News says...

This PC stuff is destroying the nation, so lets call it like it is. Racist, Southern Baptist, pulpit indoctrinated rednecks don't like Obama. There.

[sandnsea]

32. Only 17% of Louisiana whites voted for Obama

Yes, we have got to have a campaign that targets the south and deep red counties. On health care, we should focus on Arkansas and Louisiana and absolutely go there if that's what it takes to get through to these people.

[starroute]

25. Here are some earlier figures

In April Gallup found things were a lot more even by region. (http://www.gallup.com/poll/118054/100-days-obama-approval-broad-deep.aspx) East, 72-24. Midwest, 66-27. South, 62-33. West, 62-30.

In May, a regional poll noted that Obama's approval ratings had dropped to 49-38 in the South when they were still in the 60's for the nation as a whole. (http://www.fitsnews.com/2009/05/22/southern-poll-obama-approval-below-50/)

But a Washington Post poll in June had him still pretty even among the regions. (http://voices.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-numbers/2009/06/obama_approval_the_demographic.html) East, 69-29. Midwest, 69-26. South, 59-35. West, 64-32.

So granted that it's risky to compare different polls to one another, this suggests that his approval in the East/Northeast has either remained steady or actually gone up, that it's slipped from the mid-60's to about 60 in the Midwest and West, and that it's tanked in the south.

[Scurrilous]

27. Must be the heat.

It tends to addle.

[Tarheel_Dem]

30. Ah....the good ol' South. I'm so embarrassed. (nt)

[democrat2thecore]

34. REALITY CHECK!!! Which of those regions have the highest percentage of blacks?

THE SOUTH.

Selective spinning does nobody any good.

[AspenRose]

43. Blacks do not outnumber whites in the south

Blacks were not the only people who voted for Obama. He won with support from everyone.

But, for example, as someone has already pointed out, less than 20 percent of whites in Louisiana voted for Obama. Every black person in LA could have voted for him and they still would not outnumber the white vote.

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/11/obama_made_inroads_with_white.html

"For states below 25% African American, the trend line for Obama is above that for Kerry, indicating a general improvement among whites. (Note this is the TREND, individual states may differ-- see below.)

But in the deepest of Southern states, which are also the states with the highest African American percentages, Obama falls below the Kerry vote. Now this is based on just four states, GA, AL, MS and LA, but those are also the states in which Obama had his worst performance with white voters."

http://www.pollster.com/blogs/white_vote_for_obama_in_the_st_1.php


This should not be ignored or explained away as "spinning." The south has a race problem with Obama, period....and the GOP is the haven of choice for these people. No disrespect to white southern democrats who supported him, but I suspect even they know the truth of what they are up against in their own home states.

[mitchum]

39. Cracker = proud stupidity, willful ignorance, racism,and "whatever mah preacher sez"

[mcablue]

45. Please fix the title. Favorability and job approval are not the same

The numbers you cite are for favorability.