Where's The Hatred?

by Steve Soto

The conventional wisdom pushed by our media is that Bill Clinton has damaged himself with his role as Hillary’s chief supporter during the primary campaign, and that Obama supporters view him very unfavorably now. Wrong.

In the last pre-campaign reading, from December 2006, 45% of Americans said Clinton would go down in history as an outstanding or above-average president; with 49% saying that today, the public does not believe his legacy has been damaged.

Wow, a four-point increase? Yup, sure looks like a lot of damage. And those enraged Obama voters disrespect his record, right?

Notably, Obama supporters are largely positive when assessing Bill Clinton's historical significance. Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents who say they supported Obama in the primaries, 60% say Clinton will be regarded as an outstanding or above-average president. That pales in comparison to the 80% above-average or better ratings from Democrats who supported Hilary Clinton during the primaries, but is little different from the 65% of all Democrats in 2006 who said Bill Clinton would get a favorable historical review.

And those pissed-off Obama supporters think he is a slug now, right?

The poll provides some suggestive evidence that the decline may chiefly result from more negative assessments from Obama supporters. In the October 2007 poll -- the last reading before the primaries began -- 87% of all Democrats and 24% of all Republicans rated Clinton favorably. In the latest poll, Clinton's favorable rating remains 24% among Republicans but has declined to 74% among Democrats.

But when Democrats in the current poll are subdivided as to their candidate of choice in the primaries, Obama backers give Bill Clinton an average 64% favorable score, compared with 90% among Hillary Clinton supporters.

Certainly there is a distinction between how his presidency is remembered and how he is currently viewed. But if two-thirds of Obama supporters and three-quarters of all Democrats view him favorably in the immediate aftermath of the brick-throwing this spring, then the media narrative is garbage - at least as it applies to Democrats themselves.

So if the hatred isn't among the Democrats, then maybe it's among those who are reporting this crap?