Poll research offers some surprises

To the editor:

A recent headline declared the president's approval ratings are hovering around 39 percent. While this approval rating is higher than former presidents Clinton, Carter, Johnson and Truman's all-time lows, I find it hard to believe Bush's approval ratings are that low. I researched the polling process. As Gomer Pyle would say, "Surprise, surprise, surprise."

One poll quoted by the anti-Bush crowd is the Nov. 1 CBS poll of 936 adults which shows the president's approval rating at 39 percent, disapproval at 60 percent and 1 percent unsure. The approval rating seemingly spells doom for the current administration. I decided to dig a little deeper.

The CBS poll shows that 77 percent of Republicans approve of the way the president is handling his job, while only 11 percent of Democrats and 31 percent of independents approve.

You'll have to forgive me, because I'm a product of the public school system and a local university, and I'm a public servant, but that would appear to indicate that pollsters focused on a Democratic demographic. If you divided the poll's 936 respondents into categories equal to voters in the last presidential election, and take those numbers into consideration with the party affiliation of the respondents ... . Well, you get the point.

I am not nor will I ever be a straight-ticket Republican, but I'm an ally of informational truth. The liberal slant applied by the media is nothing more than propaganda wrapped in the veil of a newspaper headline or TV sound bite.

CHAD CRAFT, Jackson