State of the Union watchers think Obama’s speech was better than last year’s. Few Americans tuned in but those that did were active on social media. And the margin of error is overrated. This is HuffPollster for Wednesday, January 21, 2015.
STATE OF THE UNION WATCHERS GAVE IT A POSITIVE RATING – HuffPollster: “Americans who watched President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address largely approved, giving him better marks than they did for last year’s speech, according to instant polling conducted by CNN. Positive ratings from State of the Union watchers are the rule, not the exception. CNN found Obama getting high marks in all five annual State of the Union speeches they previously polled (the network didn’t conduct a post-State of the Union poll in 2012). Former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton also received largely positive ratings. Eighty-one percent of viewers had a somewhat positive or very positive opinion of the 2015 State of the Union, according to CNN — up from 76 percent in 2014, and in line with ratings for Obama’s speeches in 2011 and 2013. Obama devoted much of his speech to what he referred to as ‘middle-class economics,’…Voters in the 2014 election largely supported the idea of a minimum wage hike, and, regardless of party, largely agreed that income inequality was increasing. But partisans divided over the importance of the issue: Democrats were 56 percentage points more likely than Republicans to say the minimum wage was somewhat or very important, and 45 points more likely to say income inequality didn’t get enough attention.” [HuffPost, more from CNN]
Similar findings from MSNBC/SurveyMonkey – Jon Cohen, on a poll of 651 survey watchers pulled from the SurveyMonkey panel: “For one night at least, President Obama’s ambitious agenda received broad public praise, according to an MSNBC/SurveyMonkey online survey. Big majorities of those tuning into his second to last State of the Union address were happy with his speech, supportive of the direction he’s taking the country, and approving of his plan to shift more of the tax burden to the wealthy….Seventy-three percent of those tuning into the president’s speech said they were either enthusiastic or satisfied with the proposals he laid out. By 2 to 1 (64 to 32 percent), they favored his plans to have high-income Americans pay more to fund new programs aimed at middle-class families. Still, nearly half wished he had spent more time talking about their own top issue, and more than a third of those tuning in—including most Republican watchers—said the president’s proposals will do more to divide than unite the country. Thirty-eight percent of the speech-watchers in this survey identified themselves as Democrats, just 16 percent as Republicans, continuing a tradition where the president’s fellow partisans are more apt than those in the opposing party to tune into the annual address.” [SurveyMonkey]
Facebook reports on SOTU ‘interaction’ – The company emailed data to HuffPollster and other media outlets showing 5.7 million Facebook users posted 13.8 million “interactions” (defined as likes, posts, comments and shares) related to the President’s address both before and after speech on January 20. Not surprisingly, the company reported that President Obama’s off-the-cuff quip reaction to Republicans applauding his comment that he has no more campaigns to run — “I know, cause I won both of ’em” — resulted in more engagement than any other aspect of the address. The demographics of the interactions also differed before and after the address: Those interacting before the speech tilted to the oldest age and gender groups (in order of engagement: women 65+, men 65+, men 55-64, women 55-64, men 45-54), while those interacting during the address tilted younger (in order: women 35-49, men 35-49, men 18-34, women 18-34, men 50+). Women were also more likely to engage on the issue of community college. That issue ranked first among women, third among men.
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-Mark Mellman (D) reviews polling on raising taxes on the wealthy. [The Hill]
-The White House tried to make the State of the Union address more interactive. [Vox]
-Jefrey Pollock (D) shares 10 lessons he learned working with the legendary consultant, David Garth. [C&E]
