RI-01: Cicilline Not Too Popular

[#CriminalizeSobriety]

link

I'm not going to post any text from the article (better safe than sorry, vis-a-vis copyright laws!) but his approval rating is a mere 17%. This same poll registers much higher approvals for Mayor Angel Taveras, his successor, and Senator Reed.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Primary him.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

You could always link to the actual survey:

http://news.brown.edu/pressreleases/2011/03/survey

When will pollsters stop using "fair" as a measure of popularity? All it does it skew the results negative, since news organizations will inevitably take "fair" to be negative, when I would argue it's pretty much the same as saying "no opinion".

[cinyc]

You could always link to the actual survey:

http://news.brown.edu/pressreleases/2011/03/survey

When will pollsters stop using "fair" as a measure of popularity? All it does it skew the results negative, since news organizations will inevitably take "fair" to be negative, when I would argue it's pretty much the same as saying "no opinion".

Brown's choices were excellent, good, ONLY fair or poor.  Not simply "fair".  ONLY fair has a negative connotation -  not good and could be better.

This has been pretty standard polling methodology for decades.  I'm not sure why it should be changed. 

[#CriminalizeSobriety]

You could always link to the actual survey:

http://news.brown.edu/pressreleases/2011/03/survey

When will pollsters stop using "fair" as a measure of popularity? All it does it skew the results negative, since news organizations will inevitably take "fair" to be negative, when I would argue it's pretty much the same as saying "no opinion".

The poll also finds 77% of respondents faulting Cicilline for Providence's budget problems during his tenure as Mayor, so it would stand to reason his approval rating being so low regardless of the wording.

[Verily]

You could always link to the actual survey:

http://news.brown.edu/pressreleases/2011/03/survey

When will pollsters stop using "fair" as a measure of popularity? All it does it skew the results negative, since news organizations will inevitably take "fair" to be negative, when I would argue it's pretty much the same as saying "no opinion".

Brown's choices were excellent, good, ONLY fair or poor.  Not simply "fair".  ONLY fair has a negative connotation -  not good and could be better.

I think "only fair" makes it sound even more neutral than "fair" by itself. The "only" does not emphasize any negative quality (because there is no negative connotation to the word "fair")--it instead emphasizes the neutral quality. To me, "only fair" is how you describe the weather when it's neither overcast nor sunny.

TBH, given that the poll gives Obama 43% approval in Rhode Island, it's hard to take any of it seriously. Not that one would really expect otherwise from a Brown poll, o/c.

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Because it's idiotic and does not conform to common usage of words. No one should continue a stupid (as well as misleading and actively bad) practice simply because it's how things have always been done.

[Badger]

The crucial semantic differences between "fair" and "only fair" aside , even if one added all the "only fairs" to his positive column (a very over optimistic projection, IMHO), even then he gets only a 40-26 approve disapprove rating. Not so good, particularly for someone who narrowly won what should've been a safe Democratic seat even in 2010.

So why the hostility? Is Providence's budget woes really coming back to haunt him as Congressman? Is it the gay thing for non-Providencians not used to being represented by an openly gay man? Has he committed liberal apostasy in early votes on the Hill?

[minionofmidas]

Cicilline is gay? First I hear it; haven't really followed that race.

[#CriminalizeSobriety]

The crucial semantic differences between "fair" and "only fair" aside , even if one added all the "only fairs" to his positive column (a very over optimistic projection, IMHO), even then he gets only a 40-26 approve disapprove rating. Not so good, particularly for someone who narrowly won what should've been a safe Democratic seat even in 2010.

So why the hostility? Is Providence's budget woes really coming back to haunt him as Congressman? Is it the gay thing for non-Providencians not used to being represented by an openly gay man? Has he committed liberal apostasy in early votes on the Hill?

His successor is quoted as saying "I thought we were at a Category 3 hurricane, but this is a Category 5."

Also what may be lost on most people is that Cicilline's opponent, John Loughlin, was a poor candidate - including a controversial vote against some domestic violence bill and some damning remarks about Social Security that the Cicilline campaign was sure to saturate the air waves with.