Fickle (adj.): Characterized by erratic changeableness or instability, especially with regard to affections or attachments; capricious.
From the NY Times today:
"WASHINGTON — President Obama’s approval ratings, which hit his all-time low last month, have returned to where they were before the rollout of the health care law’s enrollment process, but Americans still lack confidence in the White House’s management of the Affordable Care Act, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. The public’s opinion of the law itself has improved after repairs to the enrollment website."
Are website glitches all it takes for this President's approval ratings to swing to and fro? I remember pretty clearly that President Bush's approval was steady (declining ever so slowly, but steadily) until the double-fisted F-UP's of Hurricane Katrina and the Jack Abramoff scandal. Only then did people start to acknowledge that he occasionally makes up words and no speaky good.
These swings in his approval rating remind me of those whimsical "undecided voters"who had no idea an election was approaching until September of 2012.
Or is something else going on here?
Everybody knows Gallop creates outlier polls to get their name in the headlines, but should we consider the notion that traditional pollsters are push-polling to create a narrative that doesn't exist?
I struggle to think that America is really that fickle. But then I see Kim Kardashian headlines on what used to be the Huffington Post and I start to wonder...