September 30, 2013

"49% of all people in the poll say that Obama is acting like a responsible adult in this budget battle, with 47% describing him as a spoiled child."

CNN did a poll and asked a question in this form: "Do you think Barack Obama has acted mostly like a responsible adult or mostly like a spoiled child during the recent debate over the federal budget?"
Responsible adult 49% Spoiled child 47% No opinion 5%
Same question, asked about Republicans in Congress:
Responsible adults 25% Spoiled children 69% No opinion 6%
Same question, asked about Democrats in Congress:
Responsible adults 35% Spoiled children 58% No opinion 7% 
Headline for the article reporting the poll: "CNN Poll: GOP would bear the brunt of shutdown blame."

What surprises me is how nearly everyone was willing to accept the push of the responsible adult/spoiled child dichotomy. And I wonder whether Democrats or Republicans were more likely to accept the invitation to think in those terms.

48 comments:

Bob Ellison said...

How about "Which of the following is acting most like a red-headed stepchild?"

[ ] Republicans
[ ] Democrats
[ ] President Obama
[ ] Other

Jake said...

From what I know of spoiled children, their methods get results.

Henry said...

I've seen verbiage like repeated ad nauseum across the spectrum. I'm not sure whether to be depressed or cynically amused at the short-term, dumbed-down, blindered thinking on display. Dudes! Even your agitprop is boring!

My preferred poll would be this:

Do you think Obama is acting Charles the First in this budget battle or James the Second?

Anonymous said...

The better question would've been "who is acting like extremist ideologues?"

Anonymous said...

Right now it doesn't matter what polls might mean.

The media needs them to say, "Republicans suck!" so they can start pushing that line. Heck, that poll might have been 75% Democrat respondents, for all we know.

The point of the poll, though, was a success. Republicans suck!

Anonymous said...

I think it's time to vote the straight Vote the Bastards Out ticket. Unfortunately when it comes down to it, people will say "But my congressperson is pretty good, not like those other losers" and "If I don't vote for my congressperson, a Republican/Democrat could get in!" and they'll all get back in.

Illuninati said...

I must be missing something. Those statistics look very close to me.

Leo said...

But you don't have to accept the dichotomy to have an opinion on the question. He's still more like one than the other even if he's not much more like one than the other.

Would you rather all of these polls have an option to reject the framing of the question?

Opus One Media said...

I'd rather that we label the GOP spoiled children generally and the Tea Party ilk "spoiled brats".

I'll vote for that.

Hagar said...

"Spoiled child" I don't know about.
But I do not think either he or anyone else in this White House know much about moving legislation through Congress; hence their reliance on Harry Reid, and that is not working out too well, is it?

PB said...

It only depends on the message the media blares loudly - they already thing Obama is God and the Republicans are the devil.

Paul said...

Fire 'em all!

Yea, especially NSA, FBI, IRS, and all those agencies spying on the public. Can't trust a government that spies and lies to it's own people.

And when it reopens, force Obama and Co. to join Obamacare like the rest of us.

A government that keeps itself apart for the people IS NOT A GOVERNMENT FOR THE PEOPLE.

Wince said...

QUESTION: If the federal government shuts down, do you think that Barack Obama or the Republicans in Congress would be more responsible for that?

It does seem like the CNN poll has a heavy "push" element to it, giving senate Democrats a complete pass on the issue of responsibility by reinforcing a natural tendency to view the issue as between the president and a "Republicans in congress", which is described by an editor of Roll Call in a more nuanced treatment of the entire topic by Fox News.

http://video.foxnews.com/v/2707715164001/which-party-will-shoulder-most-of-the-shutdown-blame/

cold pizza said...

Are the people who watch CNN and participate in it's polls responsible adults or spoiled teenagers?

This tells me more about CNN's audience than it does about what *most* Americans think.

I'd love to see that poll site get Insty-bombed and *then* see the results of their polls. -CP

As my whimsy leads me.. said...

Obama acts like Veruca Salt from Willie Wonka. He's a bad nut.

Toy

The Godfather said...

I wonder how many people even know what the "recent battle over the federal budget" means. And of those, how many will remember in two weeks (much less by November 2014) how they felt today.

Still, this is more good news than bad. It's more important that about half those polled are willing to blame Obama for childish behavior than whatever percentages blame either Republicans or Democrats, because generic scorn for congressmen and senators as a group has only a tenuous connection to how people vote for particular candidates for those offices. But Obama's (fading) influence over the next three years will depend a lot on how the other political players perceive that he is regarded by the electorate.

Mark O said...

The way in which one frames the argument, if accepted, will always signal the outcome.

Thorley Winston said...

I wonder what the numbers would have been if Democrats hadn’t been given a nine point polling advantage.

Sam L. said...

He wants what he wants when he wants it. His way, or no way. Sounds like spoiled child to me.

JRoberts said...

In the President's case, CNN's definition of "responsible adult" is shorthand for "unengaged parent whose first reaction is to criticize and scold when their viewing of the football game is interrupted"

Michael K said...

It will be interesting to see how the consequences line up. I don't favor the showdown on Obamacare as I think it will be a mess anyway for six months at least. I would be more in favor of the showdown on the debt ceiling. Certainly, Senator Obama agreed in 2006.

We get closer to a tipping point (or a disaster) every year. What can't go on forever won't but Adam Smith said, "There is a great deal of ruin in a great country."

I guess we will see.

jeff said...

I don't know what the correct answer is for any of the groups, but responsible adult is not it.

Crunchy Frog said...

What surprises me is how nearly everyone was willing to accept the push of the responsible adult/spoiled child dichotomy.

Funny how that seems to be representative of 80% of the polls that you post on this blog...

cubanbob said...

49% of the country is crazy in the head according to this poll. So Obama and Reid are going to hold the country hostage over a bill the majority of the country hates and hold it hostage so the democrats can tax grandma's hearing aid, grandpa's pacemaker and uncle's artificial hip and cousin's knee replacement? And these are the so-called adults?

The talking heads and the rest of the usual coterie of left wing political morons and their RINO soul mates are harping on how the republicans lost big during the last government shutdown under Clinton. What these fools forget is that Clinton lost the congress for trying to pass HillaryCare in 1993/1994 and that Obama lost the house in 2010 precisely because the democrats passed ObamaCare. And like 1996 when the republicans kept the house the republicans kept the house in 2012. The republicans should man up and take the hard line now. The government shuts down? Who cares if you aren't an employee of the government or a government contractor or getting a check from the government. Nothing noticeable will happen. A few days or even weeks of the sky not falling will be a good thing. And a sobering thing for the big government types when the public doesn't go for the bogeyman argument anymore.

Anonymous said...

CNN manipulating opinion poll.

Insufficiently Sensitive said...

CNN, being loyal members of the MSM branch of the Democratic Party, have created that questionnaire to resonate with their 'reporting' on the debate. In other words, their previous 'news' stories were framed to fetch those responses to those pre-calculated questions.

Oso Negro said...

Do we go to Pravda to get reliable poll results on Mr. Putin's behavior?

Mark Nielsen said...

100% of reasonable people realize that the press is acting like a bunch of giggling schoolgirls in the presence of their big crush Obama.

Elliott A said...

I believe the "spoiled child" meme is appropriate since they whine and carry on if the don't get their own way completely. In this case the poll response is framed by the news coverage since the republicans are not the ones refusing to budge on any issue.

Heartless Aztec said...

Lead in sentence over Richard Fernandez' place - Belmonte Club: Peter Roff at US News and World Report argues that politicians are like cats. You can’t tell from the caterwauling whether they’re fighting or mating.

Sam L. said...

His way or no way sounds like spoiled child to me.

Paul Brinkley said...

When Republicans play the role of underdog in a budget fight, they're called spoiled brats.

When Democrats play the role of underdog in a budget fight, they're called underdogs.

wildswan said...

The polls today don't matter so much as the question of who got it right - should Obamacare be put off for a year? There are major issues with unreadiness, I think. As these issues emerge the Republicans will look right for trying to delay something that was not ready.

And now the Democrats can never ask for delay because they shut down the government rather than negotiate about delay. That may turn out to be the biggest consequence of this whole exercise

n.n said...

$2.7 trillion in tax receipts. Over $1 trillion deficit. No budget of record. Someone is lying about the inevitability of a shutdown and/or default. Is Obama watching a video again?

I wonder if Obama, Reid, and majority of Democrats will employ the same scare tactics they did in order to pass Obamacare. Will they threaten to cut off the seniors? Perhaps the children. At least those (e.g Barack, Harry, Anita) who survive the clinic of horrors to take their first breath.

Oh, well. I guess it will be necessary to pass it in order to expose their true nature.

Hagar said...

Andrew Jackson got away with a lot of lawless behavior and defying both Congress and the Supreme Court because a majority of the people of his time was with him regardless.
But a majority of the people are not with Obama on either the AHCA or the national debt.

sakredkow said...

I think it's time to vote the straight Vote the Bastards Out ticket. Unfortunately when it comes down to it, people will say "But my congressperson is pretty good, not like those other losers" and "If I don't vote for my congressperson, a Republican/Democrat could get in!" and they'll all get back in.

I heart whswhs.

Hari said...

Suppose neither side blinks for now. The government shuts down. Then after 48 hours or so the Republicans resubmit the exact same bill except that it calls for a 6-month suspension of Obamacare.

At that point, would the Republicans be perceived as grownups? Would the Democrats be perceived as spoiled children if they reject it again?

LilyBart said...


We cannot afford our government - they are ruining us. CNN is sending out smoke to keep people from noticing.

Bob Ellison said...

This is a derivative of the "when did you stop beating your wife" question.

Who answers polls? Why do they do it?

How does the answer affect polls? How might it affect other things, like the mainstream media and the choice of candidates? How might those other things influence the original thing?

Who is involved in such forces? These are vectors. Which vectors point which way? How powerful are they? Why are they pointing that way? From where do they derive their power?

The Godfather said...

I really hope the Republicans don't hold firm on delaying Obamacare. If they could actually force such a delay, it would only help the Democrats by giving the Administration more time to get their act in gear, and put the problems off until after the 2014 election. I hope the Republicans have been playing a (excuse the non-pc analogy) game of Br'er Rabbit telling Br'er Fox not to throw him into the briar patch.

Trying to delete the medical devices tax and/or the special treatment of congressional and senate members and staff, now that's got some popular appeal. Lose that, and then run on it, I say!

dave72 said...

He isn't a spoiled child. He is a big sissy, and Putin and the Arabs know it.

Hagar said...

I believe the U.S. Constitution is set up so that the House of Representatives will "control the purse strings."

That Obama and his mouthpiece, Harry Reid, baldly state that they refuse to negotiate with the House about matters requiring large outlays of taxpayers' money seems to smack a lot of Charles I Stuart's handbook.

Kirk Parker said...

"Who answers polls?"

Not me, by Ghu! The only patriotic American responses to opinion polls are either (1) refuse, or (2) lie--but do so in as an enigmatic and contradictory way as you can.

Craig said...

Or as the Reverend Jessie Jackson used to say when he spearheaded the Rainbow Coalition and was asked repeatedly to address framed dichotomies that didn't include him and did include which white guy most deserved his endorsement, "The question is moot."

Robert Cook said...

"From what I know of spoiled children, their methods get results."

Only from parents who are poor at their jobs.

Matt Sablan said...

Just a reminder on the compromises offered by Republicans, which completely ignores the normal: "Give them everything they want anyway" strategy that is usually employed:

1. Starting position: Defund ACA.

2. Fine, we'll just delay it till we can figure out how to make it work right.

3. Ok, whatever. If you still won't talk, let's at least say that Congress is subject to the ACA.

4. What? You won't even give us THAT? Fine, then let's at least not raise prices on hearing aids and pacemakers.

5. Seriously, you want poor people to pay MORE for medical devices? Ok, uh, can we have a week to come up with new terms?

6. Really -- you won't even do that? I give up. Fine. You win: Shut it down.

[This also ignores the offer to delay JUST the individual mandate and a few other options. Rather, this simplifies and lays it out to show just how stubborn Reid has been.]

Tyrone Slothrop said...

Obama is behaving like a spoiled adult. Republicans are acting like responsible children.

Alex said...

Let's face it - the GOP is screwed. In the end, the party advocating the free lunch wins.