As he devoted his regular 60 Minutes segment on Sunday to complaining about surveys, CBS's Andy Rooney declared his belief that President Obama is "doing the best job he knows how, and it's good enough for me." Rooney, who has a history of openly admitting that his political views are liberal [1], also gave viewers some insight into his social circle as having like-minded views on politics as he relayed to viewers that eight out of nine friends he asked also like Obama. Rooney complained:
Gallup said that they surveyed over 90,000 Americans for this one poll. I mean, where was I when they were calling people about President Obama? The survey said that only 44 percent of us approve of President Obama's performance. Well, I surveyed nine of my friends, and eight of them said they liked Obama but didn't trust Gallup polls. As far as I'm concerned, Obama's doing the best job he knows how, and it's good enough for me.
Below is a transcript of the beginning of Rooney's segment from the Sunday, November 14, 60 Minutes on CBS:
ANDY ROONEY: Some days it seems as though I spend about half my time reading surveys. It isn't enough to know what you think, you have to read about what other people think, too. They take surveys for everything now. You read about surveys asking what people think about the economy, about cars, about what people are buying, what they're eating, and what they think of the job that President Obama is doing.
A Gallup poll says that President Obama's approval rating was at an all-time low. Gallup said that they surveyed over 90,000 Americans for this one poll. I mean, where was I when they were calling people about President Obama? The survey said that only 44 percent of us approve of President Obama's performance. Well, I surveyed nine of my friends, and eight of them said they liked Obama but didn't trust Gallup polls. As far as I'm concerned, Obama's doing the best job he knows how, and it's good enough for me.
- Brad Wilmouth is a news analyst at the Media Research Center