A new poll asked Republicans about the unemployment rate under President Obama’s leadership. Can you guess what they said?
A new Bloomberg Politics national poll released today offered more insight into how the GOP presidential race is shaping up, but buried in it was this question: “Do you think the unemployment rate is higher or lower than when President Obama took office in 2009?”
Overall, one third responded “higher,” which is stunningly false, and 56 percent rightly stated “lower.”
But, also stunning, the majority of Republicans – 53 percent – responded they thought the unemployment rate is higher than when Pres. Obama took office. By contrast, 76 percent of Democrats rightly stated unemployment is lower.
“Since President Barack Obama first took office,” FactCheck.org last month reported:
The economy has added nearly 8.4 million jobs — more than six times the number gained under George W. Bush.
The number of job openings doubled, to a record 5.7 million.
Nearly 15 million fewer people lack health insurance coverage.
Corporate profits are at record levels; stock prices have more than doubled.
To illustrate the likely “why” of why Republicans are so misinformed, and think the country is in terrible shape, here’s a video journalist David Pakman last week recorded about how Fox News covered the amazingly good news that the unemployment rate dropped to 5 percent.
Watch:
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Image by Pargon via Flickr and a CC license