David Rothkopf Profile picture
Jan 20 9 tweets 2 min read
Let's say for a moment Biden's approval rating were impacted by an external factor (a new strain of COVID) beyond his control (nature) that is compounded by a GOP campaign to exacerbate its consequences...
...by inflation, driven largely by economic recovery creating demand supply chains are unable to respond to fast enough....
...and by right wing narratives that are amplified in the mainstream press (that has failed to adequately cover the successes of the administration...and if you don't believe me, read the one year wrap-ups were inundated with).
Oh, and it is also colored by the difficulty of achieving critical legislative goals when the opposition sees their sole mission as obstruction (and thus disatisfaction with the president is really misdirected frustration with them).
If all that is the case, the polling would be misleading right? Might not actually be communicating how the people feel about the president or how they would feel if his record were presented more fairly.
If the polls are thereby distorted, why are they so widely reported? (So, often without noting Biden is polling much better than his most recent predecessor, the man who helped create this hyper-polarized era of US politics that is different from what prior presidents faced.)
And why are the so often reported without noting that we are in the second inning of a nine-inning game and that the box score right now is fairly meaningless? Or noting that key factors driving the polls may well change over the course of the year ahead?
Look, I'm old enough to expect laziness and distortion and bad analysis from the political media. But a little more context would sure help the soundbite, Twitter length distillation of near-meaningless numbers into headlines, memes and conventional wisdom.
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More from @djrothkopf

Jan 19
How do you hit the one year mark "in dire straits" after a year of unprecedented achievement? 6.5 MM new jobs. $1.9 T Rescue Package. $1.2 T Infra Package. Pulling kids out of poverty. More new judges than anyone. Ending longest US war. Restoring US standing worldwide?
More than 200 MM vaccinated. Restore stability and decency to presidency. All this with only 50/50 split in Senate, despite GOP resistance to everything including fighting pandemic. Poll numbers much higher than those of his predecessor. BBB is likely to return in smaller bites.
Objection to voting rights legislation not on him but GOP and challenges of 50/50 split. Excellence throughout the administration. The negative narrative is nonsense picked up directly from some GOP Twitter storm or press release. Facts tell a different story.
Read 4 tweets
Jan 18
I'm troubled by the argument I've seen to often recently from DC pundit-types, most well-meaning, that the Dems and Biden have made a mistake by embracing a left or progressive agenda and that they should shift to the center, their "true" base. This is based on a fallacy.
Everything Biden has done has been supported by either all Dems or all Dems minus one or two Dem Senators. Does this analysis mean that 48 out of 50 Senators are "left" and that Biden needs to adjust his policies to suit the other two?
Does it mean that he should be adjusting his policies to win the votes of so-called "centrist" GOPers. You know, the ones who are uniformly voting against the most basic protections for democracy & who have voted against measure after measure supported by most Americans?
Read 8 tweets
Jan 16
Djokovich, Rodgers, Irving, etc. aren't just entitled rich people who are so arrogant they think they know better than science. They are betraying the two groups who enabled them to get rich--their fellow athletes & the public. These are not "off the field or court issues."
These jerks put their team mates &/or opponents at risk, officials, those who work in & around their games and they sent a terrible message to those who buy support their sports. They can't claim these are "personal" decisions and then cash in otherwise on their public personas.
The fact that the leaders of the corporate sports machines for which they work have given them license to behave this way makes them complicit too. Nearly two thousand people are dying a day in the US alone...almost all of them unvaccinated.
Read 7 tweets
Jan 13
Hot flash for the pearl clutching chorus of Republicans "offended" that Biden referred to proponents of Jim Crow 2.0 policies by comparing them to racists: Biden didn't go far enough. George Wallace and Bull Connor were despicable. But today's GOP is worse.
Because the objective of today's GOP is not just to disenfranchise people of color. It is to end democracy in America as we know it. They seek to effectively silence all opposition to their extreme right wing agenda and send us lurching toward authoritarianism.
They seek to place the GOP beyond the will of the people. It is their assault on voting rights but not just their assault on voting rights. It is their gerrymandering but not just their gerrymandering.
Read 8 tweets
Jan 6
I see some on the right criticizing @VP for "comparing" 1/6 to 9/11. First, she wasn't comparing them, she was saying they were notable dates in history. Second, even if she were comparing them, it's a useful comparison. While 9/11 was horrific and should not be minimized...
...the threat posed to the U.S. by Trump, Trumpists and the far right is much greater than that ever posed by Al Qaeda. I've said it before and say it again. thedailybeast.com/the-maga-movem…
Fox didn't much like it when I said it then. So, let me try a different tactic. George W. Bush compared the two when he said, "There Is little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home. But in their disdain for pluralism...
Read 6 tweets
Jan 6
Powerful remarks from @POTUS & @VP. Credit to the president for the directness with which he characterized the role of his immediate predecessor. But as with Garland yesterday, the enduring measure of their performances shall not be in their words but in their actions.
It is not enough to call for defending voting rights. The speech would have been better had he directly put the weight of his office and his personal reputation behind the fight for the legislation that will soon be before the Senate.
It is not enough to say we are a nation of laws. Rather, we must see the enforcement of those laws. It is not enough to say we will defend democracy. Our leaders must say and demonstrate how they will do it.
Read 7 tweets

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