Obama approval rating 40%

[LDB]

Facebook is probably just as good an indicator as anything else of a cross section of the population and therefore as good an indicator as anything else of the true thoughts and feelings of the public. Based on their survey of 65,001members Obama has a 40% approval rating against a 55% disapproval rating with 5% undecided. Perhaps the tinting is falling off the lenses more quickly than anticipated?

Do you approve or disapprove of the job President Obama is doing in office?
May 27, 2009
65001 votes

Approve 40% 26275 votes

Undecided 5% 3167 votes

Disapprove 55% 35559 votes

 

[Turtle]

Facebook isn't a scientific poll, but then again the scientific polls aren't an accurate reflection, either, since they are scientific only in that they are scientifically targetting a specific audience, usually to gleen a predictable result. Facebook is almost certainly a more accurate indicator of how most people feel, except, of course, you have to throw in about a 7% error because the poor don't have a computer or Internet access.

 

[LDB]

I agree it isn't scientific but it also wasn't set up to obtain a specific result like most polls. Because the question is very basic with no agenda items to push it toward a specific response I'd consider the margin of error very small but do agree with some people being unable to access the internet. Even with a likely excessive 7% margin that's only an even approval rating at best.

 

[greg334]

Facebook is almost certainly a more accurate indicator of how most people feel, except, of course, you have to throw in about a 7% error because the poor don't have a computer or Internet access.

Wasn't there some polls done last year by MSNBC and FOx with the same questions but different audience and the results were opposite?

 

[Turtle]

Yeah, that one was pretty funny, where the polls were exact opposites of each other. The Facebook poll is interesting because, like Leo said, it's just a blunt question, on/off pass/fail. Either they approve or they don't.

I suggested the 7% error rate simply because the more poor of us are likely to be without net access, and they would likely approve of Obama even if they really don't have a clue what he has or has not done to this point.

But, the 7% could go far in the other direction, as well, because there's a lot of old farts that don't do the computer thing who may not approve of Obama even a little bit. There are also many who don't do Facebook because they have other things to do. So I figured 7% was probably about as good a figure as any.

 

[DougTravels]

I am having trouble finding this poll, could someone provide a link.

 

[LDB]

It was one of the polls that came up on the facebook main page on 6/4. When I looked at it the results were as I posted. Not sure where you find it today.

 

[DougTravels]

I couldn't find it.

 

[LDB]

One of my contacts just voted in it actually. It currently stands at

Approve 42% 61,236

Undecided 6% 8,187

Disapprove 53% 77,643

Total votes 147,066