Are news organizations gaming Obama's black support

[ProSense]

CNN today: Obama's race problem is black and white -- and green

Washington (CNN) -- Even as he charges into his re-election battle, President Barack Obama has a festering weakness on a flank that, by all accounts, ought to be rock solid: the one held by African-American Democrats. Their support for his programs, belief in his leadership and enthusiasm for another term is softening just as he needs it most.

In the past few weeks, the president has been chastised by the Congressional Black Caucus for avoiding troubled inner-city districts, peppered with tough questions on BET, and suffered plummeting poll numbers among black voters.

That last item is critical. During the 2008 election, their turnout was massive and their support almost unanimous. Now, however, a Washington Post/ABC News poll finds that black voters with a "strongly favorable" view of Obama dropped from 86% to 58% in just five months.

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That poll statistic keeps popping up. CNN's most recent poll shows Obama's non-white support at 70 percent. Gallup's poll breaks out non-white (65 percent) and blacks (82 percent) support.

Now for the strange, take note on how WaPo references the data on black support, "strongly favorable." The problem is it's impossible to track down the exact data WaPo is citing from the link it provides.

WaPo: Obama’s favorability numbers start to drop among African Americans

New cracks have begun to show in President Obama’s support amongst African Americans, who have been his strongest supporters. Five months ago, 83 percent of African Americans held “strongly favorable” views of Obama, but in a new Washington Post-ABC news poll that number has dropped to 58 percent. That drop is similar to slipping support for Obama among all groups.

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From the link embedded in the text above:

Obama’s popularity slips along with job approval in Washington Post poll

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African Americans continue to view the president favorably in overwhelming numbers, but the proportion expressing strongly positive views has dropped 25 points since mid-April. Five months ago, 83 percent of African Americans held strongly favorable impressions of Obama. In the new poll, the number doing so is 58 percent.

Similarly, for the first time since he’s been in office, Obama’s favorable rating has slipped below 50 percent among those aged 18 to 29, with as many holding strongly unfavorable as strongly favorable views (21 to 18 percent). Strongly favorable views among all liberal Democrats are down from 69 percent in April to 52 percent now.

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The poll was conducted September 14 to 18 among a random national sample of 1,013 adults. The results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

There is a link at the end of the piece, "Read the full poll results," but it really isn't the full results.

If Obama's "strongly favorable" support did drop 25 points among blacks, but his overall favorability is still in the 80s, that may be cause for concern, but without seeing the trend line it's hard to tell what to make of it.

Still, the way WaPo is reporting it leaves the impression (despite the "strongly favorable" qualifier) that Obama's favorability is only 58 percent among blacks.

Now here is a report on the poll, ABC: 2012 Poll: Obama’s Favorability Slips – But Perry, Romney Do No Better

The result of this ABC News/Washington Post poll underscores the long road Perry and Romney face in making an impression on would-be voters – and their challenges in doing so. Perry, notably, is seen more unfavorably than favorably among Americans who’ve formed an opinion of him, and Romney manages only a split decision, much like Obama.

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DIVISIONS – Naturally there are vast partisan and ideological divisions in these attitudes. Seventy-eight percent of Democrats see Obama favorably, reflecting continued strength in his base, albeit diminished from its peak. That slides to 42 percent among independents, and a mere 17 percent among Republicans. Similarly, Obama progresses from 76 percent favorability among liberals to a sharply lower 47 percent among moderates, 36 percent among “somewhat” conservatives and 21 percent among those who call themselves “very” conservative.

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Obama is strongest in the West, and has maintained substantial favorability among Hispanics (61 percent) as well as among African-Americans (86 percent). Among whites, though, just 36 percent see Obama favorably, no better than Romney’s 38 percent – despite Romney’s being so much less well known.

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METHODOLOGY – This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by landline and cell phone Sept. 14-18, 2011, among a random national sample of 1,013 adults. Results have a margin of sampling error of 3.5 points. The survey was produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates of New York, N.Y., with sampling, data collection and tabulation by SSRS/Social Science Research Solutions of Media, Pa.

Poll PDF

The PDF does break out overall favorability data: "strongly favorable," somewhat favorable," somewhat unfavorable," and "strongly unfavorable," but not the numbers from blacks.

Why did WaPo choose this point in time to report only the "strongly favorable" numbers, and provide no link to the actual data?

[FrenchieCat]

1. It's part of the "Elect a Republican" Plan.....

August 18, 2011

There are forces working very hard at making sure that President Obama is defeated in 2012. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they took an oath or signed a pledge to that effect.

The newest political strategy is to turn the African-American community against the first black president. The idea is to get black folks to scream at the President and to threaten to withhold our support come November 2012. Due to the very high unemployment rate in the black community, this could be an easy sell. The well-paid professional propagandists don’t ask African-Americans to lay the blame for the lack of employment at the feet of the business world (which is hoarding up a couple of trillions in their rainy-day fund), or to consider the fact that governors everywhere are cutting down on the public sector workforce (comprised of large numbers of black Americans per capita), or to holler at the Republican-dominated House, which has blocked most of the job-creating programs introduced by Democrats. Instead, they want us to aim our fire solely at our President and to blame him for 30 years of white men’s policies.
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I’m puzzled as to why some would want to believe that the majority of a particular minority group, who stood by FDR even as FDR basically cut them out of the new Social Security program as a compromise with Southern Democrats to get the bill passed, and who idolized JFK without gaining the rights that they were fighting for at the time, and who supported Bill Clinton, who gutted welfare, signed NAFTA, and then lied about having sex with “that” woman, would now be encouraged to drop their support of a black president who has done what I have listed in such a short time amidst political provocateurs and opportunists throwing rocks at him from the Left and the Right. It makes no common sense to me. In fact, it only tells me that we must insure that our community is well informed, so that we all hold steadfast, even as the most spoiled and entitled in this nation attempt to hoodwink us into believing that somehow we are worse off with this president than we have been with any other.

The Obama presidency is not about him, nor is it about black people. His presidency is about good common-sense governance for all Americans, while dealing with incredible odds and looking hateful enemies in the eye. Every day they conjure up ways to destroy this nation, just to say it happened on his watch. My bumper sticker statements are that ObamaCares, while Republicans won’t, and we shouldn’t turn our backs on him, we should cover his.
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=208404252547904

[ProSense]

9. Not sure what it is,

but people ought to be able to criticize policies on merit, whether or not they go far enough, contain loopholes, create new problems, etc.

The debate thus far has been consumed with attacks on people's character, the President and anyone who supports him. Some of the President's critics can't seem to discuss the flaws they see in policy without attributing them to some flaw in the President's character, and they blame supporters for not being able to make their point to more people. Whenever there is push back, the attacks intensify.

The criticism is now: Blacks are the problem because of their blind support. I mean, blacks' "blind" support was welcomed for the last few decades, but it's a problem for some on the left (always been for the right) because Obama is President?

[FSogol]

2. K & R. n/t

[Proud Liberal Dem]

3. I'll do you one better, ProSense

news organizations are gaming Obama's support period IMHO! :eyes: Frenchie Cat's right: This is part of their calculated "Elect a Republican POTUS in 2012" plan.

[GoCubsGo]

15. Not just that....

They are gaming the economy, too. It's been non-stop fear-mongering for month after month. Their incessant scaring the crap out of everyone is making things way worse than they might otherwise be, IMO.

[JoePhilly]

4. The media is now FULL ON trying to reduce Dem turnout ... in the last 2-3 weeks ...

Obama hates Jews.

Obama hates blacks.

Obama hates the poor.

Since DADT just fell, they had to drop their "Obama hates gay people". But it will come back.

[frazzled]

5. They seem to be gaming the "Jewish" support too (PPP poll FL)

Obama leads Rick Perry with Jewish voters 82-2 in a general election matchup and Romney 78-11, huge margins in line with Democrats’ traditional edge with one of their core demographics. PPP notes that it’s a relatively small sample size, but all indications are still positive: Obama’s approval rating among Jewish voters is 76/20 and 61/31 on his handling of Israel.

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/shana-tova-obama-dominates-fl-jewish-vote-in-poll.php?ref=fpb

[Supersedeas]

10. Koch changed his tone once he heard what he wanted to hear

[CakeGrrl]

6. Of course. According to the MSM, he's losing EVERYBODY!

Patently false, but that doesn't stop the doomsday from permeating this forum.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

7. American black voters are much smarter than the Corporate Media gives us credit for

We will not fall for the trickery, divisiveness that the Corporate Media continues to project onto us.

[Hutzpa]

8. Ofcourse they are

just take a look at some of the threads that have been started on DU about how some black
Reps. are coming out in opposition to Obama's speech to the black caucus.

Here is an e.g; http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x785483

They are fishing overtime to find something that they can use to divide and conquer because that
is the only weapon they have left, the idea is to get black people to turn against him by pointing
out little comments and high unemployment, as if they would do better to help the black community.

[EffieBlack]

11. It's not just the media. Some Democrats are doing it, too

Lord save us from our "friends" who claim to be protecting us from President Obama.

[Number23]

12. Yep. And Al Sharpton (among others) has something to say about that

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=258&topic_id=11247&mesg_id=11248

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Number23]

14. In what way do you think he "governs as a Republican?"

I am curious because I've seen you post before that you are a plastic surgeon. Which means if you're not a millionaire, you're pretty damn close.

Many of the complaints I've seen on DU are from "liberals" who say that the president only supports the wealthy. So in that regard, I find your comments particularly peculiar since you are (very likely) quite wealthy but are still saying you don't support the president.