I said this in the “Stupid Thread” just now, but this is one of many reasons I consider polls to be the junk food of science (or even social science).
Gallup is most definitely a respected polling agency though. I just can’t wrap my mindnd around a telephone poll of 1,000 adults representing the entire country, no matter how they tried to weight their results to reduce bias. It’s hard enough to buy when a poll only reflects a state (elections)
Interesting to see top 2 results split largely on party lines though. I should not be surprised but somehow am. Also interesting to see that the top 2 only received 18% and 15% total combined votes.
Trump performed poorly in this poll year after year compared to most sitting Presidents. He only beat Obama this year because some Democrats shifted their choice to Biden. From the article in Gallup:
The incumbent president is usually top of mind when Gallup asks Americans to name, without prompting, which man living anywhere in the world they admire most. In the 74 times Gallup has asked the open-ended most admired man question since 1946, the incumbent president has topped the list 60 times. Harry Truman (1946-1947 and 1950-1952), Lyndon Johnson (1967-1968), Richard Nixon (1973), Gerald Ford (1974-1975), Jimmy Carter (1980), George W. Bush (2008) and Trump (2017-2018) are the incumbent presidents who did not finish first in past years.
When the sitting president is not the top choice, it is usually because he is unpopular politically. That was the case in 2017 and 2018 when Trump had 36% and 40% approval ratings, respectively, and finished second to Obama as most admired man.
So the standard is that you win this poll if you’re a sitting President, which Trump has mostly failed to do.
What’s really sad is that Americans are either so ignorant of what is going on in the world, or have low standards when it comes to whom they admire, that they can’t think of anyone other than a president to admire.
Appears that Sen Hawley is positioning himself to “inherit” the far-right segment of the GOP faithful. And for all the fear-mongering churned out about the Radical Left lately, t’would seem the Radical Right is very clearly here to stay
On a FAR more humorous note, Trump calling-via-tweet for Majority Whip Thune to be primaried in 2022 is pretty rich. I mean, just imagine Trump as the kingmaker of your party; congrats establishment Republicans, you brought this upon yourselves
Audio: Trump berates Ga. secretary of state, urges him to ‘find’ votes
January 3, 2021 | 5:56 PM EDT
In a one-hour phone call on Saturday with Georgia election officials, President Trump insisted he won the state and threatened vague legal consequences if the officials did not act. These are excerpts from the call.
Lol. Didn’t these Republicans used to say the Constitution was important? Didn’t they just run on law and order? And now they just straight out ignore the judicial branch?
If this was the left the screams from these people about a lack of evidence, lost court cases, treason, coup, everything under the sun would be out.
I can’t even tell anymore who actually believe it and who just believes it because they want to sop up the Trump voters and to do that you damn sure better be hallucinating with them right now.
As I look back on Trump’s “Times Square” Statement…the more I realize that he wasn’t saying it in jest. Demagogues clearly know the hold they have on their followers.
Another trend that I hope goes away…and quick.
The call for a post-election “commission” because of all the people who believe that the election was “fraudulent”.
Most Hell No…and a few things:
The continued arrogance of Trump and His Minions that the only way he could have lost was because of fraud. Even though it’s apparent that Hillary Clinton never looked “in the mirror” for her loss…she has never, ever claimed mass fraud nor taken things to the level of Trump and his syncophants.
A Commission would not change one damn mind. Why waste the money and time.
Lastly…the only reason there is any question about this election is because of the lies and misinformation spread by Trump and his Minions.
On the call
Raffensperger: “Well, Mr. President, the challenge that you have is the data you have is wrong.”
He could have just hung up after saying that, but he continued to calmly, respectfully, and firmly reject every line of bullshit Trump was spouting.
This guy Raffensperger may be my most admired person in politics this year. He’s a Republican who has stood strong and done his job in the face of immense pressure and death threats to himself and his family.
In other news, all the former defense secretaries penned a joint letter to reiterate that the military has no role to play in election results. The idea originated from that ultra liberal commie bastard Dick Cheney.
The fact that they felt this was needed speaks volumes as to what’s probably going on inside the Pentagon right now. I don’t think these guys would have done this unless there are forces inside the military who are considering intervention.
It proves that at the end of the day, all of the ideologies they (or we) believe in and all of the demagogues they worship (with claims of what is moral and immoral in black and white terms), are wrong and Machiavelli was right. It’s like the Pope, several centuries ago, trying to reconcile love thy enemy with calling for a crusade.
This is one of my very favorite pieces of information. I actually did laugh out loud when I read the article earlier. It works in so many levels, not the least of which is that a bunch of liberals who have spent a good 15 years talking about Cheney as the devil are going to have to cheer him as a defender of the Republic .
I mean just look at the list of people who signed it. Basically every consequential military move in the past what… 30 years?
This I do disagree with. I don’t think there is anybody in the military who would consider intervention at all - but I do think that the cosigners of the letter felt like politicians aligning with Trump’s diehard base were basically playing around with matches and gasoline.
