Will NBC ask Todd about prediction that Bush approval would top 50 percent by July 4?

Before the November 2006 midterm elections, NBC News political director Chuck Todd predicted several times that if the Democrats won "control of Congress" and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) became speaker of the House, then President Bush's "approval rating will be over 50 percent by the Fourth of July next year." In fact, as of July 4, 2007, Bush's approval ratings are far below 50 percent. Indeed, a recent analysis by the weblog RealClearPolitics.com of national polls conducted between June 11 and June 28 placed Bush's average approval rating at 30.5 percent. Will NBC News question Todd about his inaccurate prediction?

Todd appears to have first made this claim during the October 27, 2006, edition of NBC's Today. In a segment on possible ramifications of the Democrats' regaining control of Congress in the midterm elections, NBC News chief White House correspondent David Gregory reported that "some analysts warn that if Democrats overreach, it will backfire." Gregory then aired a clip of Todd predicting that the "president will have a job approval rating over 50 if Nancy Pelosi's speaker of the House by the Fourth of July."

During a November 3, 2006, news briefing on the midterm elections, Todd made a nearly identical claim: "I think if Democrats get control of Congress, President Bush's approval rating will be over 50 percent by the Fourth of July next year." Todd reasoned that Democrats would "have to legislate in a way that they know Bush will sign things," and by passing immigration reform, minimum wage, and "some health care stuff that Democrats want to get through," Bush "is going to sit there, he's going to veto something every once in a while, and it's going to remind people of the power of the presidency. I think it's going to make him -- I think it's going to make him more relevant domestically and might rescue his legacy in these last two years a little bit."

Yet on July 4, with Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress and Pelosi serving as speaker, Bush's approval ratings are nowhere near as high as Todd predicted. Bush appears to have scored his highest approval ratings in a recent Rasmussen poll, which covered "the full month of June." But even in this poll, just 35 percent of respondents "approved of the way that George W. Bush performed his role as President," marking the "fourth straight monthly decline for the President" in Rasmussen polls.

Bush has fared worse in other recent national polls. A CBS News poll released June 29 found that Bush's "job approval rating slipped to 27 percent, his lowest number ever in a CBS News poll -- 3 points less than last month and 1 point below his previous low of 28 percent in January." According to CBS News, Bush's "disapproval rating is also at an all-time high of 65 percent." A June 26-27 Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll found that 31 percent approved of "the job George W. Bush is doing as president," while 60 percent indicated that they disapproved. Similarly, a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll conducted June 22-24 found that 32 percent of respondents approved of Bush's handling of his job, while 66 percent did not.

From the October 27, 2006, edition of NBC's Today:

entire article w/video of Todd making his laughable comment below:

http://mediamatters.org/items/200707050011?f=h_latest

"News" outlets bring on the same idiotic opinion givers and grant them a forum, while never requiring them to be accountable for their vast pronouncements.
When there is no penalty for incorrectly trying to guide public opinion, the unfounded opinions will continue to fly.

I would like to see a "three strikes" rule applied to these unaccountable visionaries, sending them permanently to the showers when their garbage graphically illustrates their incompetence at predicting the outcome of current policies.

What we need is fewer opinions and more straight reporting. Chris Matthews' show is little more than an appeasement of his own enthusiasm for presidential politics and a forum for him to strut his lack of knowledge or his ability to ignore the obvious and to attempt to istall his own paradigm. That we can do without.

Accountability is so 20th century!

About virtually every single issue. Why is it the MSM refuses to admit these guys just plain don't know what they are talking about? It is time to have people on that have gotten it right...