sixty-eight percent approval

Sixty-Eight Percent

I read the in Time magazine that President Obama had a job approval rating of 68% on the day he took office.  Approval ratings, to this feeble mind, have to do with how someone has done their job over a period of time… a week, a month, a year. So, hopefully, you can see where I’m going here.

That first day, our new President spent most of the day going to twelve different events after the inauguration.  The events, mostly celebrations of the various geographic supporters of the President, consisted of short speeches and dancing.  Hmmm, and we’re we really, like 68% happy with how the man did that day.

Of the Americans I know, most of whom may fall on the right side of life, do not think one can actually have a rating on the first day of their new job.  Yes, we can have an impression as to how one might do, but that never has been translated into a job approval rating that is worth a second of broadcast news.

However, as we have come to understand, if the name of Barack Obama is associated with any of this kind of hype, the rules are different, the impressions not falling within the norm.  If it’s Barack, it’s acceptable, it’s great, it’s unbelievable, it’s every positive attribute any fifty people can have boiled into one person.  Last I checked, God didn’t grow up in Indonesia.  My aunt spent time in Indonesia as a missionary.  If she was alive, maybe she could have been a choice for Secretary of State.  You know, my aunt would have had an approval rating of 100%.  What you don’t know, is the only voting entity would have been God (not Barack).  Problem is, she probably wouldn’t have had that rating on her first day in Borneo, not even from God.

So why is it that 68% of people polled could assess the work of a new President, on his first day at work, which really was not a day of work, as being acceptable.  Did they employ the judges from “Dancing with the Stars” as part of their assessment for the day.  Or was Martha Stewart brought in to add her viewpoints to the quality of the celebration parties?  It doesn’t add up.

One can only assume the presence of mind-altering substances in the pollees.  How else can those responses be substantiated? Okay, I know that was not the case.  Actually, the percentages were simple.  Sixty-eight percent of the people surveyed were Democrats.  Now that adds up! And the rest?....Democrats who weren’t invited to the inauguration.