Posted May 22, 2009 at 9:51 AM by Maurice Berger
What do Americans think of the recently very talkative (and critical) former Vice-President Dick Cheney: Not much, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research Poll: The survey "indicates that a majority of Americans still have an unfavorable opinion of
Cheney. 55% of people questioned in the poll say they have an
unfavorable opinion of the former vice president. 37% say they
have a favorable opinion of Cheney, up eight points from January when he left
office. In the past two months the former vice president has become a frequent critic
of the new Administration in numerous national media interviews. 'Is Cheney’s uptick due to his visibility as one of the most outspoken
critics of the Obama administration? Almost certainly not,' says CNN Polling
Director Keating Holland. 'Former President George W. Bush's favorable rating
rose six points in that same time period, and Bush has not given a single public
speech since he left office.'” While the former VPs overall numbers ARE up from earlier this year, his approval at 37%, remains very low relative to many other recent Vice-President's in the months following their time in office.
Tagged: 2009, Dick Cheney, Voter Enthusiasm, Republican Party
Posted May 19, 2009 at 9:41 AM by Maurice Berger
Is former Vice-President Dick Cheney hurting the Repulican Party. GOP insiders seem to think so, according to a new survey: A solid 57% of Republicans said former Vice President Dick Cheney has
"hurt the Republican Party since leaving office" in this week's National Journal Political Insiders Poll. Here are some representative remarks from some of the respondents:
"Cheney has emerged as the GOP's most visible spokesman. And you're
more likely to find WMDs in Iraq than independent voters who like the
former vice president."
"As the Republicans try to move beyond the political disaster of the
Bush years, Dick Cheney is a surreal public presence that is hurting
Republicans very badly."
"Cheney's comments about [Colin] Powell versus [Rush] Limbaugh will
drive moderate voters even further from the party. Republicans need
these voters and spokesmen that will attract them."
"Cheney's disapproval rating is 60 percent: He's so unpopular that
he probably couldn't get a gig on an infomercial. He's certainly not
the right guy to become the face of a revived and repositioned
Republican Party."
Tagged: 2010, Republican Party, Dick Cheney
Posted Apr 15, 2009 at 10:22 AM by Maurice Berger
A strong majority of Americans, according to a new CNN/Opinion Research poll, reject former Vice-President Dick Cheney assertion that the nation is less safe under Obama's leadership: the poll "indicates Americans don't agree with former Vice President Dick
Cheney's recent assertion that President Barack Obama's actions have increased
the chances of a terrorist attack against the United States. [The] survey also suggests that most people support
the president's plans in Afghanistan — up to a point. 72% of those questioned in the poll released Monday disagree
with Cheney's view that some of Obama's actions have put the country at greater
risk, with 26% agreeing with the former vice president. In a March 15 interview on CNN's "State of the Union with John King," Cheney
said the Bush administration's anti-terror strategies "were absolutely essential
to the success we enjoyed of being able to collect the intelligence that led us
to defeat all further attempts to launch attacks against the United States since
9/11. I think that's a great success story,' Cheney said. 'President Obama
campaigned against it all across the country. And now he is making some choices
that, in my mind, that will in fact raise the risk to the American people of
another attack.'"
Tagged: Dick Cheney, President Barack Obama, terrorism
Posted Apr 06, 2009 at 9:38 AM by Maurice Berger
Absence does not always make the heart grown fonder, as the saying goes. According to a just released Gallup poll, Americans do not have warm memories of either former President George W. Bush or Vice-Prsodent Dick Cheney: Neither George W. Bush's deliberate silence about the Obama administration nor Dick Cheney's ready criticism of it appear to have altered U.S. public perceptions about either man. The former president and former vice president are each viewed unfavorably by 63% of Americans, very similar to where they stood with the public in their final White House years. The last reading on Bush's favorability that Gallup recorded during his presidency came in a Jan. 9-11, 2009, survey. At that time, 40% of Americans viewed him favorably and 59% unfavorably. However, this represented an unusual spurt in positive feelings toward Bush, possibly due to changes in media coverage of the embattled president as his term ended, or because of Americans' generally buoyant mood leading up to Inauguration Day . . . The 35% of Americans viewing Bush favorably today is close to his all-time low of 32% in April 2008, and matches a favorable rating from August of that year. Bush's ratings have consistently been in negative territory since July 2005, a sharp contrast to his generally positive image throughout his first term."
Tagged: George W. Bush, Dick Cheney
