In FNC's "Grapevine" segment Thursday night, Shannon Bream
highlighted a finding in the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll
which NBC's Chuck Todd failed to point out in emphasizing the public's
disgust with Democrats, Republicans and the Tea Party. Bream observed:
A new poll suggests Americans have more positive feelings for the Tea Party movement than for either of the Democratic leaders in Congress. The NBC/Wall Street Journal survey finds 30 percent have a favorable view of the Tea Party movement, compared to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's 21 percent and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's 11 percent.
The evening before, on Wednesday's NBC Nightly News, Todd declared: "It's an unhappy America"
where "the Democrats hit a record high in their negative rating - 44
percent" while "the Republicans are doing even worse - 46 percent of the
country has a negative view of the Republican Party" and "even the
Tea Party - which has actually enjoyed a little bit of a renaissance
over the last six months - 34 percent now have a negative view. Just 30
percent have a positive view."
The next morning (Thursday) on the Today show, Todd repeated:
"Democrats hit an all-new high in their negative rating. Republicans
have even a higher negative rating. The Tea Party, which had enjoyed a
positive rating for awhile, now they have a negative rating."
More in Geoffrey Dickens' post: "NBC's Todd Proclaims If GOP Wins in November It's Still 'A Bad Election Night for All of Washington [1]."
More of Todd's poll summary on the August 11 NBC Nightly News,
transcript provided by the MRC's Brad Wilmouth for Todd's look at
evaluations of the parties:
CHUCK TODD: It's an unhappy America. Look, they don't like the Democrats. The Democrats hit a record high in their negative rating - 44 percent. Just 33 percent have a positive rating on them. The Republicans are doing even worse - 46 percent of the country has a negative view of the Republican Party; 24 percent has a positive view. Even the Tea Party - which has actually enjoyed a little bit of a renaissance over the last six months - 34 percent now have a negative view. Just 30 percent have a positive view.
What does this mean for the fall campaign? Right now, voters are sort of in a hold-your-nose moment. They're sort of split decision - 43 percent want Democrats to keep control; 42 percent want Republicans to take control. But, among voters who have the highest interest in the November elections, this is where Republicans have a potential big advantage - 50 percent of high-interest voters want Republicans to take control of Congress, and just 39 percent would like to see the Democrats keep control.
But, again, it's an unhappy America. And this election, right now, could turn out being a hold-your-nose election when you go into that ballot box.
Bream's "Grapevine" item on the August 12 Special Report with Bret Baier where she was filling in for Baier:
A new poll suggests Americans have more positive feelings for the Tea Party movement than for either of the Democratic leaders in Congress. The NBC/Wall Street Journal survey finds 30 percent have a favorable view of the Tea Party movement, compared to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's 21 percent and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's 11 percent. 33 percent of those surveyed have had a positive attitude toward the Democratic Party compared to just 24 percent for Republicans. Congress' overall job score even worse: 21 percent approved compared to a whopping 72 percent who disapprove.
- Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at the Media Research Center. Click here [2] to follow him on Twitter.