Rasmussen keeps track of President Bush's approval rating, which he claims was at 36% for the month of March, just one point higher than the lowest it's ever been. But then on another page Rasmussen shows Bush's ratings by state. In that poll Rasmussen includes only 35 states,so who knows how accurate a picture it presents. Accurate or not, the results are interesting.
Boldly standing out on Rasmussen's "Ratings by State" chart are the numbers in the "Poor" column, only three of which are below 40%. Those states are Kansas at 38% (Sheesh. What's the matter with Kansas, anyway?), Texas at 39%, and Utah at 29%. In the rest of the 32 states, the percentage of people who feel that Bush is doing a poor job is upwards of 40%, going as high as 61% in Massachusetts and Nevada. Naturally, you would have to conclude that there is an extraordinarily high disapproval rating of President George W. Bush.
But you get a slightly different picture if you look at the percentage of people who do not rate Bush as "Poor". I took the liberty of pasting Rasmussen's chart in below. I also inserted a column to represent the percentage of people who rate Bush as at leat "Fair", by adding up the "Fair", "Good", and "Excellent" numbers for each state, and I also inserted a row at the bottom to calculate the averages.
Take a look. The average of the 35 states polled show Bush with 51% who believe he is doing at least a fair job to 48% who feel he is doing a poor job.
| Bush Ratings by State | Date | Excellent | Good | Fair | Exc/Gd/Fr Total | Poor |
| Alabama | 4/2/2008 | 21% | 21% | 14% | 56% | 42% |
| Arkansas | 3/18/2008 | 16% | 17% | 17% | 50% | 48% |
| Arizona | 11/28/2007 | 19% | 24% | 16% | 59% | 41% |
| California | 3/12/2008 | 11% | 13% | 16% | 40% | 58% |
| Colorado | 3/17/2008 | 13% | 22% | 16% | 51% | 48% |
| Connecticut | 3/11/2008 | 13% | 14% | 15% | 42% | 57% |
| Florida | 3/12/2008 | 19% | 19% | 17% | 55% | 44% |
| Georgia | 3/20/2008 | 18% | 25% | 12% | 55% | 43% |
| Illinois | 12/19/2007 | 16% | 13% | 17% | 46% | 53% |
| Iowa | 3/31/2008 | 16% | 23% | 14% | 53% | 45% |
| Kansas | 11/28/2007 | 21% | 23% | 17% | 61% | 38% |
| Kentucky | 11/1/2007 | 19% | 19% | 17% | 55% | 44% |
| Maine | 4/1/2008 | 11% | 18% | 14% | 43% | 57% |
| Maryland | 1/2/2008 | 16% | 20% | 15% | 51% | 48% |
| Massachusetts | 3/18/2008 | 9% | 13% | 16% | 38% | 61% |
| Michigan | 3/25/2008 | 14% | 15% | 18% | 47% | 52% |
| Minnesota | 3/19/2008 | 18% | 17% | 15% | 50% | 50% |
| Missouri | 3/24/2008 | 19% | 19% | 18% | 56% | 44% |
| Mississippi | 11/1/2007 | 30% | 17% | 13% | 60% | 40% |
| North Carolina | 3/20/2008 | 15% | 22% | 17% | 54% | 45% |
| New Hampshire | 3/16/2008 | 13% | 17% | 20% | 50% | 51% |
| New Jersey | 3/27/2008 | 10% | 18% | 17% | 45% | 54% |
| New Mexico | 2/18/2008 | 24% | 18% | 16% | 58% | 41% |
| Nevada | 3/19/2008 | 14% | 15% | 10% | 39% | 61% |
| New York | 11/14/2007 | 15% | 15% | 15% | 45% | 53% |
| Ohio | 3/13/2008 | 17% | 18% | 18% | 53% | 47% |
| Oregon | 3/26/2008 | 14% | 18% | 17% | 49% | 50% |
| Pennsylvania | 3/10/2008 | 15% | 18% | 15% | 48% | 52% |
| South Dakota | 3/4/2008 | 17% | 19% | 18% | 54% | 44% |
| Tennessee | 4/3/2008 | 17% | 24% | 15% | 56% | 43% |
| Texas | 10/31/2007 | 23% | 20% | 16% | 59% | 39% |
| Utah | 12/5/2007 | 19% | 34% | 17% | 70% | 29% |
| Virginia | 3/26/2008 | 19% | 21% | 14% | 54% | 46% |
| Washington | 3/27/2008 | 13% | 19% | 11% | 43% | 57% |
| Wisconsin | 3/26/2008 | 19% | 19% | 14% | 52% | 48% |
| Average | 17% | 19% | 16% | 51% | 48% |
According to Rasmussen, President Bush is most popular in Kansas, Mississippi, and Utah, where he is thought to be doing at least a fair job by 61%, 60% and 70% respectively. Very unscientific, but isn't that interesting?
Comments