Attention President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney: your national polling approval ratings are GREAT — compared to this guy:
Gov. Bob Taft’s approval ratings have hit single digits.
But Ohio Republicans shouldn’t hit the panic button, a new statewide poll suggests.
A Zogby International online survey, conducted a week after the Nov. 8 election and released yesterday, shows just 6.5 percent of Ohio voters view the embattled GOP governor very or somewhat favorably. Barely 3 percent rate his job performance as “good” or “excellent.”
“I’m not aware of anyone who’s ever sunk lower,” pollster John Zogby said.
Monica Lewinsky? Oh. We’re talking about polls. Yes, it’s getting to the point where measuring Taft’s standing with the public may require a proctologist. MORE:
Sixty-one percent of respondents said Mr. Taft should have resigned after pleading guilty in August to misdemeanor ethics charges for failing to report dozens of gifts and golf outings to state officials.
The charges stemmed from a scandal involving Toledo-area coin dealer Tom Noe, a former Republican fund-raiser and Taft golfing partner who was recently indicted on charges that include laundering money to President Bush’s campaign.
Mr. Bush, for his part, registered a 46 percent favorable rating in the poll.
Nearly 50 percent of Zogby respondents said Mr. Taft ran a “purposely corrupt” administration as governor, while 33 percent called his office the victim of “corrupt individuals who scammed the state.”
See? A “purposely corrupt” administration is what got him into hot water. But corruption due to incompetence, lack of high standards, lousy management, and looking the other way isn’t “purposely” … so politicos elsewhere (particularly in Washington) can take heart. AND:
Mr. Zogby said he has seen only one other politician dip below 10 percent approval: former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, who hit 7 percent while immersed in a bribery scandal.
Bribery, shribery, Ryan was nice to his mother.
A spokesman for Mr. Taft dismissed the results and questioned Zogby’s Internet methodology. “Governor Taft does not govern by the polls,” said Mark Rickel, the spokesman, “especially one that does not appear to be scientific.”
Well, Internet polls can be inaccurate and bloated, much like corrupt politicians. Although Internet polls aren’t usually off by 20 or 30 points…
The poll surveyed 698 self-identified “likely” Ohio voters online from Nov. 15-17 and weighted the results slightly to reflect state demographics. It has an error margin of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points. Zogby conducted similar post-election surveys in California, New Jersey, and Virginia.
Attention Democrats: you have no reason to smile. Becuz:
Asked which party was more “organized and effective,” 52 percent said Republicans, compared to 12 percent for Democrats, who haven’t won a statewide executive election in 15 years and who are currently looking for a new state party chairman. Only 30 percent – mostly self-declared Democrats – said it was time for a change in state government because no party should lead the state uninterrupted for so long.
Fewer than one in four said four so-called reform measures on the Nov. 8 ballot, which were pitched as an antidote to GOP scandal and all failed, “would have cleaned up a corrupt state government.”
They need a reformist governor, like Jesse Ventura…NO! Wait…They need a reformist governor, like Arnold Schwarzenegger….No! Wait…
How can they find someone who’s intelligent, perceptive, wise, honest and focused? (Sorry. TMV is too busy and can’t help out..)
Paging King Solomon!