President Obama’s Job Approval: A Triond Response
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President Obama has been at the helm of the most powerful job in the world for more than six months and although many believe it’s not enough time to assess his performance, I believe his radical behavior since he has been in office warrants questioning and notice. I recently conducted a poll on my Blog (wdcplace.blogspot.com) to get a feel for the public opinion on his performance. This article is my summary of the results of that poll.
The poll question was “How do you feel about president Obama today?” It was not meant to be scientific and there was no error rate. There were five choices and voters were not limited to voting on only one. There were no voter qualifications and anyone from any country could vote. I was simply looking for the general public sentiment or opinion of Obama six months into his job.
The poll was open for seven days, but unfortunately, not many people voted, which surprised me since Obama is such a controversial character. The following are the results:
- Doing a good job: 6 votes (30%)
- Spending way too much: 10 votes (50%)
- Taking America into socialism: 9 votes (45%)
- Doing a bad job: 11votes (55%)
- Don’t know: 0 votes
In general, the results show a 30 % approval rate and a 70% disapproval rate of Obama’s performance six months into his term. Although the vote was light, the results resemble some of the official polls that are being reported by much of the media. It indicated that Obama’s popularity is falling. The official polls that I have been watching show his performance approval rate has fallen lower than 50%
Where Was Everyone? Is This Apathy or an Attitude Problem?
I sent personal messages to all my Triond friends and fans (twice) encouraging participation, but only a very few voted. This is quite disappointing; it causes me to wonder if many Triond members will not take a moment to help a fellow Triond member/friend gather some simple, but very important data.
I have been very busy for the past six months and have not had the luxury of extra time to spend on Triond. Consequently, I have only been able to write and submit a couple of articles, and have not been able to comment on many articles written by friends – I do try to read most of them, however – after all, the number of views is the most important variable on Triond.
The lack of participation in my poll, especially after sending personal messages and asking everyone to vote causes me to wonder if friends and fans will not support someone who is not able to consistently comment on their material. If I hadn’t sent personal messages (twice) to each person, directing everyone to go to my blog (wdcplace.blogspot.com) and vote, I could assume that not many knew of my poll.
I also used the Triond forum to get more exposure hoping to lure voters to my poll, which I do not believe helped. That only provided a platform for primarily two men debating/arguing about Obama’s performance, which I found to be interesting. (I will call them BON and OWTS.) I believe BON is conservative and OWTis very liberal.
These men argued on and on about Obama and neither could move the other from his position. They seemed to be from two different worlds because their opinions and beliefs were so different. Their debate begs the question of, “how can they see the same thing so differently?” However, they typify the basic and strong opinions and differences between conservatism and liberalism.
I believe each man made a big mistake while arguing. BON argued his conservative opinions very well, while OWT tried stepping all over them, but he (BON) seemed to begin giving in to OWT towards the end of their debate. This can be seen by some as weakness. On the other hand, OWT seemed to have an air of superiority arguing his liberalistic opinions during the debate and did not show much respect for BON’s points of view – this can cause him a loss of credibility by some.
In summary, my poll indicated that the public’s approval of Obama’s performance over the last six months is waning and his popularity is falling. Although not many voted in the poll, the results are similar to national polls. This article is meant only to reveal the results of the poll, not to go into the issues.
Lack of participation and support by fellow Triond members/friends to help a friend gather important data on an important issue is an unexpected issue that came to light while conducting the poll. This poll was about Obama’s performance to date. If the thinking was that Obama has not been in office long enough to judge his performance because programs take time to work, then your vote would have been “Don’t Know.” If anyone asks me to participate in a poll they are conducting, I would gladly help even if I do not have time to comment on their articles. This apathy or attitude surprised me the most while conducting this poll. (I will be conducting more polls on my blog in the future. I hope I get better participation.)
15 Comments
Hello Westbrook, I voted in your poll that Obama is both “Taking America into socialism” and “Doing a bad job” personally I think it’s time that we watch the man very carefully or we could see the freedoms our countrymen have died for be stolen out from under us.
Others, may feel free to disagree, many have disagreed, but I have been watching him like a hawk, I have no ulterior motives whatsoever for watching his presidential actions, I am watching to make sure American ideals and liberty are not undermined.
I would recommend he not be voted in for a 2nd term
I have long awaited the results from the poll. It is mainly who attends the party not who abstains from being there. I certainly share your concern and was not at all surprised at the LOW turnout.Apathy is rappant in our world.I can only partially know the anticipation for such an undertaking on your part. I am sorry for the poor response.
Last things first (as best party planners tell us): Wes, I always read your articles and you are on my freind list. I did not respond to the poll for a couple of reasons: First, it caught me in the middle of a time when I was hard pressed to comment on freinds writings let alone post my own stuff. Regrets, but the timing was off. Second: I am one of those people who believe that six months on the job as boss anywhere is a short time to say how a the worker is doing. Obama is making some fast moves that are making people unhappy and worried; at the same time, please recall that he got one gosh-awful mess dumped on him. If he was hanging around dragging his feet folks would be fusing about that, too. I’m adopting a “Wait and see” attitude. Keep in mind that I am one of those people being directly effected by policy change. Education has been hard hit by budget cuts this year. So I guess you could count me in that spot that didn’t get any votes in your poll: I don’t know.
That’s okay Daisy. We all have our own issues. I am not angry with anyone nor am I picking on anyone individually. Keep in mind that I was not addressing any political issues here. Yes, six months may be too early to assess Obama’s performance, but I only wanted to get a current feel of the public sentiment regarding him – it’s done everyday by pollsters. My disappointment was that only a very few voted in my poll despite all my efforts. If you didn’t have time to vote, that’s okay. I have the same problem with committing time to anything, but I offered an option of “don’t Know” for those who did not think he has had enough time. I understand your situation with lack of time, but my goodness, you would think of the hundreds of people I asked to vote, more than a handful would vote.
Who needs you and your statistics when there are so many surveys out there and yours did not add anything new?
Interesting attitude salikhana. I never claimed anyone needed me.or my statistics, or that anything new would be revealed. I simply thought the opinions of Triond users would be interesting to many of us on Triond. The poll was neutral and fair. It did not favor or fault Obama.
Wes, I am one who voted in your poll. As I voted, I think Obama is doing the best he can under the circumstances. I don\’t know why anyone can expect Obama to clean up the load of – - – - in 6 months that Bush left him with. I give him a thumbs up for hanging in.
It’s interesting Salikhana that you recently made me a friend and said that “it would be an honor to be my friend.” Enjoying your comment, I also made you a friend. I am not sure why you would write such a negative comment. As to who am I? I have been a Triond writer for going on two years; and many Triond writers know me. I ran two polls since I have been active with my blog, because blogspot offers polls…it’s nothing new. I thought it would be interesting, and fun, to poll my Triond friends about the hottest subject today, Obama. There is no harm intended. You are the only one who has made a negative remark about it. I’m sorry it bothers you.
Thanks West,
I still consider you my friend, and friends, in my opinion, are the people who can honestly tell you their opinion. I honestly don’t think that your or many other polls tell much because you ask the same questions as most polls. Also, I believe that President Obama is doing the best he can in a country that, unlike the rest of the world, believes in capitalism in spite of the situation that it has brought us to. There isn’t a whole lot to love in this nation which lets the few become so much richer than the others.
Salikhana, My two polls were similar by design, but at different times. This is to see if the perception of Obama’s performance is improving or diminishing with time. Your opinion of the man, whether they are or not similar to mine is fine with me. My polls were not intended to speak to the issues, only to gauge public opinion. I hope this helps.
Good piece….I personally have no opinion on how good of a job he is doing because it is way too early. However, it really gets to me because this is who America wanted. Now those same people who voted for change, simply for the sake of change are now mad. Careful what you ask for…cause you just might get it.
Westbrook,
You should have held your poll for more time. One thing you should note is that the more people that visit your blog, the more people are likely to take the poll. It is a simple numbers game. More website traffic turns into more responders.
On the other hand if you still want more responses, you should extend the poll. May be you can still do that. So far you got an initial estimate. If you restart it now, more will participate.
Along with that write another article publicizing the poll and telling your view points. Once a reader reads the article, he/she is most likely to be persuaded to participate in a poll than otherwise. If you didn’t know, this is the trick of article marketing for any online business. Persuade your reader by telling him something related to your product.
Lately I have been busy with myself that I could not notice how Obama is doing. It was almost like silence for many months. Probably the real test will come in the next wave of economic downturn. Let us watch out for that. I will give a strong opinion at that time for sure.
Fornis, I agree the poll did not last long. Blogger offers a poll that automatically goes for a week, which is where I have my blog. I am not sure that I had any control over the time duration. I did, however, run almost the same poll again a second time and did not get much participation, so when the time was up, I deleted it.
I find that any issue related to Obama is a sticky one and most people are hardened in their views about him. The problem with Triond writers is they don’t seem to want to move to another site, such as a blog, to do something, such as vote in a poll. I had a lot of private messages telling me that they did not think he had been around long enough for them to vote about his performance.
I put the subject of Obama’s performace on Triond’s forum and there was a lot of discussion on it, but mostly fighting.
I am aware of the art of article marketing. If I had written on any other network, other than Triond, I may have written my views and opinions about Obama’s performance and directed them to a poll, but I wanted to stay neutral on Triond, at least during the poll, because, my opinions can also influence how people vote. I have a lot of good friends on Triond and they vary in political ideologies. It is so easy to piss people off nowadays about anything concerning Obama, so, I thought I would present the poll and then an article regarding the results. You would not believe how many people I am still trying to calm down.
I have written some articles about Obama early on. Anyone who has followed my work knows this. Reading those articles will give you a clear idea where I stand. I may do another poll someplace, sometime, maybe preceded with an article with my views. I will let you know.
Westbrook,
I didn’t think about it that way. Writing an article with our view could change the opinion of participants. I agree, it will be hard to calm others with whom we find difference of opinion.
Alternatively you can try writing about the importance of giving an opinion instead of giving any detail about Obama. Or whatever he promised to do before coming to office. You can excite the readers by telling how hot the world was with the news about Obama when he had won elections.
Thanks for taking time to get back to my comment.
Thanks for this information