I was Galluped this week.  They called me up and asked a few questions about the state of the country, the economy, and the elections.  What I found is that their questions don’t make any allowances for anything beyond yes/no or Democrat/Republican responses.  I think what this does is cause their numbers to be skewed.  When the mainstream press gets the results of the poll, they report them like they were gospel.  When the actual results don’t match the polls, they are then left casting about for answers as to why (usually they seem to blame it on voters “throwing a tantrum” or something like that when their liberal favorites don’t get elected or get thrown out).

If you were to ask if I approved of the job that Bush is doing on a strictly ‘yes/no’ basis, my answer would be ‘no.’  And in fact, that’s just what Gallup did.  I am also a participant in Zogby’s online poll.  I get a questionaire from them about once a month.  They break things down a little more, but my answers still tend to be negative on a variety of issues.  I don’t like the profligate spending on his watch (billions more for Medicare anyone?).  I don’t like the pandering to illegal aliens.  I don’t like his position on the Assault Weapons Ban (not only was it wrong, it was cowardly, since he thought it was pretty safe that he wouldn’t actually have to worry about it being passed).  I don’t like his support for the FMA.  So when it came to rating my overall opinion of George W. Bush, I rated him as “unfavorable.”  Of course, I gave Kerry, Edwards, and Nader ratings of “highly unfavorable.”

I don’t fit in any political party anymore.  I can’t stand the Democrat party.  The morality police wing of the Republican party pisses me off so much that the tent really isn’t big enough for them and me at the same time.  I fell out with the Libertarian party after 9/11, when they adopted a blame America approach. 

Anyhow, all these negative factors show up in my polling results, but it doesn’t necessarily translate into information that can be relied on for anything.  When it comes time to make a decision for the presidential election, my only choices are Bush or nobody.  There isn’t a snowball’s chance that I would vote for Kerry.  But for now, when they ask me who I’ll vote for, I simply say I’m undecided.

I think come November that the news media is going to get thwacked about the head by people like me.  Despite our high disapproval for George W. Bush, or being undecided at the moment, I suspect there will be a lot nose holding at the voter booths.  Until then, the polls will show lots of undecideds and low approval ratings for Bush, which will be pounced on by the media and shouted from the rooftops in the hopes of influencing the vote.