It’s early, but so far the public reaction to the selection of Paul Ryan to be Mitt Romney’s running mate is not only bad, it’s the worst view of a VP pick in the last 25 years, according to a new Gallup poll.
Four in 10 Americans rate Mitt Romney’s selection of Rep. Paul Ryan to be his running mate as either “excellent” or “pretty good,” while 42% call the choice “only fair” or “poor.” This even division is among the least positive reactions to a vice presidential choice Gallup has recorded in recent elections. Only George H.W. Bush’s selection of Dan Quayle in 1988 generated a higher negative response, although it also generated higher positives.
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Doug Little
August 16, 2012 at 2:30 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
A deeply serious thud!
jba55
August 16, 2012 at 2:33 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Wow, viewed worse than Palin. That’s got to sting.
pinkboi
August 16, 2012 at 2:53 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I don’t know who this speaks more ill for, Ryan for having it worse than Palin or the American People for thinking anyone could be worse than Palin.
cycleninja
August 16, 2012 at 3:00 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@pinkboi, it depends on how you mean “worse.” Palin was clearly incompetent, but Ryan is capable enough to be really dangerous.
Randomfactor
August 16, 2012 at 3:01 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ryan should try winking, you betcha
raven
August 16, 2012 at 3:03 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
So what is wrong with a misogynistic, zombie eyed, granny starver?
AFAICT, Ryan wants to get rid of social security and medicare. He is also a flaming misogynist who wants to enslave women.
This should mean that no one who:
1. plans on getting old enough to collect social security and utilize medicare
and
2. Anyone with two X chromosomes and a uterus
should vote for him for their own survival. Which is most of the American people.
Oddly enough, there are a lot of women who plan on making it to 65 who will vote for him any way. It’s one of the mysteries of the universe.
John Hinkle
August 16, 2012 at 3:08 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Just give it time. Fox Newz will change that.
Jordan Genso
August 16, 2012 at 3:15 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Regarding those comparing his numbers to Palin, keep in mind these are the “immediate reaction” numbers, and were gathered before she ever really said or did anything of national attention.
What will be interesting is what the numbers will look like three months from now, after the election, how popular Ryan will be and how that compares to Palin after the election.
My prediction is that his popularity will tank just like hers, but for clearly different reasons. She tanked because she lacked any substance. He’s going to tank because his substance is so flawed (hypocritical, irrational, inefficient, etc).
At least, that is what will happen if the media actually gets them to talk about their positions. So maybe my prediction is doomed to be wrong.
Reginald Selkirk
August 16, 2012 at 3:47 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Someone needs to photo-chop Ryan’s head onto that gun-toting bikini babe.
F
August 16, 2012 at 4:09 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ba ha. A ha hahahaha. Dan Quayle.
You forgot Gallup in your list, which saw fit to have two categories labeled “Excellent/Pretty Good” and “Only Fair/Poor”.
oranje
August 16, 2012 at 4:15 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Both this article and the Savage article from yesterday make me think there’s a guy out there named Ryan Pick. I was thinking something rather awful happened to him today.
Buzz Saw
August 16, 2012 at 4:20 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
What Jordan said. Also, the question is about the choice, not necessarily the person chosen. So, since few likely knew Palin at that time, I would guess that many gave an opinion based on whether they thought it was a good idea to pick a no-name politician and/or a woman as a running mate.
wscott
August 16, 2012 at 4:29 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@ Reginald Selkirk: There’s a visual I didn’t need!
@ F:
Actually they had five categories: Excellent, Pretty Good, Fair, Poor, and No Opinion. They’ve simply lumped the positives & negatives together to report the overall trend.
krisrhodes
August 16, 2012 at 4:32 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Keep in mind that Palin wasn’t viewed as a poor choice right away, y’all.
She was a well liked gov’ner with flair and charm. And her actual record of gov’ner of Alaska was (compared to her reputation now) a great example of bipartisan efficacy. The disaster only occurred when she tried to combine her personality with the stresses of being a big name candidate.
She started strong, and went bad fast.
The more telling comparison is Dole, I think. Dole is the only other one that started negative in the list, and he had little room for improvement with undecideds. Ryan an at least look at the 19% w/o an opinion to make some improvement. Of course, they need to move independents, and I’m not sure how Ryan will do that. But at least, as far as he’s concerned, they’re listening.
harold
August 16, 2012 at 6:11 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
There’s definitely some guy out there who goes by the handle “The Left”. Whether he’s related to The Edge, The Rock, or The Situation, I don’t know.
What I do know is that every time I hear a TV news channel or see a comment thread for a “mainstream media” site story, a bunch of people are saying that The Left does or thinks something very stupid.
Michael Heath
August 16, 2012 at 6:31 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I’m confident Paul Ryan’s numbers will improve and beat Sarah Palin’s by election day. I was driving around some today where Fox News radio at the top of the hour repeatedly ran a
infomercialnews clip of Rep. Ryan arguing he’s trying to save Medicare for future retirees where his plan does that better than President Obama’s. Palin’s problem was that everytime she opens in her mouth, even in controlled venues, she increases her unfavorability ratings.tommykey
August 16, 2012 at 6:34 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Oddly enough, there are a lot of women who plan on making it to 65 who will vote for him any way. It’s one of the mysteries of the universe.
Raven, one of my female FB friends posted how happy she was that Romney picked Ryan and another female FB friend who I went to high school with “Liked” Ryan, so yeah, there’s definitely some of them out there.
Randomfactor
August 16, 2012 at 7:05 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Well, CNN is supposedly reporting as breaking news that adding Ryan has cut Obama’s lead in Wisconsin from a single-digit lead to a single-digit lead.
Yeah, you read that right. (I guess the news is that it slipped within the margin of error for the first time.)
vmanis1
August 16, 2012 at 7:11 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
If Romney/Ryan do win, I’m buying shares in Soylent Green.
raven
August 16, 2012 at 7:16 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Mine will be:
1. 100 simple recipes using cat or dog food.
2. 100 simple DIY operations for the home medical treatment market.
busterggi
August 16, 2012 at 7:18 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Look at this positively.
Now they can use “Thud and Blunder” as a campaign slogan.
raven
August 16, 2012 at 7:24 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Astonishing.
I’m reevaluating my decision to not flee the country if Romney/Ryan get elected.
I don’t have to live here.
I’d like to leave them to their dystopia and watch from a safe distance. It’s still not looking too easy. We own our house and moving the cats is all but impossible. Just changing brands of dry food is a major change for them.
At least that is an option. One of my friends is on disability for a serious autoimmune disease. She can’t really move much some days. The money is barely enough and without medicare, she would be dead broke or just dead.
Azkyroth, Former Growing Toaster Oven
August 16, 2012 at 8:55 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Raven: on that note, I heard somewhere that Norway in particular has a huge demand for qualified engineers. Anyone know offhand if that’s true?
Azkyroth, Former Growing Toaster Oven
August 16, 2012 at 8:56 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
…also, Norway has about twice the population of the metropolitan area I live in.
THAT would take some getting used to. O.O
Scott F
August 17, 2012 at 12:13 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
My dyslexia is showing through. Twice I read the title as this, which wasn’t too far off:
“Ryan Pick Lands With a Turd”
Jafafa Hots
August 17, 2012 at 1:30 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Its funny. My first reaction to Palin was very different than many other people’s.
I didn’t watch her convention speech on TV, I listened to it from my stealth camp site hanging in a Hennessy hammock in the trees over a quiet creek. Without video, sitting far from people in the dark, listening to her was like listening to a Klan rally.
Just the audio without video made it sound like a violent hate-filled racist speech meant to rile up the brownshirts.
I didn’t sleep at all well that night.
royovrebo
August 17, 2012 at 1:45 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Yep, both offshore and onshore. Well, anyway, that’s what my dad kept pointing out in what I eventually figured out was vague hints that I should go back to school.
(Whenever work sucks, I console myself that at least I’m not a) going to school or b) having to work in an office. I’m not bloody likely to go off and be miserable for years doing the former so I can spend even more years being miserable doing the latter.)
You know, the country in total may be sparsely populated, but we do have stuff like towns and shopping centres…
borax
August 17, 2012 at 7:39 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Jafafa: The speech pretty much looked like a klan rally except all the hoods were at the cleaners.
Reginald Selkirk
August 17, 2012 at 9:33 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Presented With Letters, Ryan Admits Requesting Stimulus Cash
Michael Heath
August 17, 2012 at 10:51 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Reginald,
I linked to your story in Ed’s blog post at 10:29 a.m. today.