NBC/WSJ poll: Is Obama overexposed?

Posted: Tuesday, September 22, 2009 1:00 PM by Mark Murray
Filed Under: Polls

From NBC's Mark Murray
With President Obama appearing on five Sunday-morning news programs and with him sitting down with David Letterman last night, the political chattering class has asked this question: Is Obama overexposed?

According to a new NBC/WSJ poll, the answer is mostly no -- although it depends on whether you're a Democrat or Republican.

In the poll, 34% say they see and hear Obama too much, 9% say they see/hear him too little, and 54% say it's the right amount.

Among McCain voters, however, 63% say they're seeing too much of the president. That's compared with only 8% of Obama voters who say that.

Among independents, 52% say Obama's exposure is the right amount, versus 40% who say it's too much.

The NBC/WSJ poll was conducted Sept. 17-20, and this question has a margin of error of plus-minus 4.4%. The rest of the poll will be released -- beginning at 6:30 pm ET -- on NBC Nightly News and on MSNBC.com.

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Comments

We just suffered through the worst presidency in American history and the supporters of that nitwit are complaining because our new president is brilliant, well-spoken and popular. Bush couldn't have even gotten that much coverage because he couldn't speak except in "sound bites". Ask him tough questions and he just dodged the questions.

Now all the crazy republicans who ran up the deficit (remember when Bush came into office, Clinton handed him a surplus)are complaining about the deficit. Either they are just stupid, they have amnesia or worst of all, they are just complaining for polital gain. I suspect the latter.

California Jane (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 2:08 PM)

California Jane (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 2:09 PM)

You've got to give it to him, he hasn't been the president for 9 months now and STILL his detracters insist on dragging him out during every discussion about the current president. I'm no "W" fan, but the current president does lie and he shouldn't. HE stated that HE was going to be above all that, Now he has to live up to his word! Be Better, That's what he said he would do. 8 months in office and nothing to show for it. NOTHING!

John Doe, Seattle, Wash (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 2:40 PM)

We see Obama the right amount of times, but the media has really overplayed his attention as the first Black President, because when bush was in office, and yeah I didn't capitalize his name... he lied so much even his own party beleived his lies... Now we have a good man in office, different skin color, and those republicans and conservatives can hardly breathe... Its funny to me that wilson, would tell President Obama he was lying, when for 8 freaking years, bush and cheney lied about WMD etcc.... and not one republican called it out what it was! Dumbfounded people... and you don't want to listen to President Obama, who is encouraging ALL children, red, yellow black and white kids to stay in school. He is also trying to provide health insurance to ALL americans, and you fighting that too. You deserve to have NO insurance.. STUPIDS

Darrell A, East St Louis, MO (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 2:40 PM)

Obama needs to spend time reading healthcare bill and quit galavanting around the US. Tired of seeing his face on TV. No other president has taken this much air time. ROCK STAR.

Jane Doe, Pittsburgh, PA (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 2:41 PM)

The more I see of Obama side step the issues I have become troubled with Him and his Administration I now don't trust Him or My government. He's a lot of smoke and mirrors and He starting to look like a fraud!The American people want change not more taxation and Socialism! We didn't ask him to change or interpret the constitution to his fit his personal agenda's

Mark (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 2:41 PM)

no joe,no bo,nj
No No, i said him, the president, Not his family, him the man. he was a college professor, he taught constitutional law at the university of chicago law school.
my next question for you is, do you agree he was delt a real mess from the former president, and do you agree what he has done is try things to help you, and me.
please disagree but the tone of your post show hatred, you have accused him of violating the constitution, you have call him everything short of a war criminal and after only 9 months. but what you have not done is understand that this president was delt as bad a hand as roosevelt!!!!
diagree with his health care plan, disagree on his stumilis plan, but please stop showing hate, i hope you not one of those who carries signs deplicting him as hitler.

Jeff Evanston IL (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 2:42 PM)

Go President Obama!!!! Your are doing a great JOB!

SC (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 2:42 PM)

Gee, liberal george stephanopolis did a pretty good job on Him calling him out on veiled taxes

bob (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 2:42 PM)

Unfortunately there just happens to be a lot of immediate concerns in the world http://www.enewsreference.com

eNews Reference (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 2:43 PM)

I want to make something perfectly clear, I can't get enough of this guy. I think he should have his own channel.We could call it Obama TV. Nothing but Obama 24/7.
Cool A. Drinker
----------------------------------------

He already does. That channel is called CNN.

John (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 2:44 PM)

Bush is gone. Obama is a commie pure and simple. He will spend this country into the ground. One more czar please and we should be able to control your entire life. ooh doesn't that feel good?!

bOB (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 2:44 PM)

a president cannot run a country without good exposure. Obama is doing the right thing by connecting with the nation. I totally agree with his strategy.

errol lee, waterbury, ct (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 2:44 PM)

Hello to Cal Seeburg, Cary NC and Bill, Fairfax, VA and similar folks ....

Changing the channel or turning off TV is one thing but the question is "what did you think / make of Cheney - Bush??" it appears that you like the "post-mortem" scheme of things than engaging actively/pro-active in shaping OUR future (like what we got from the trillion plus dollar DEFI"SHET" that Bush gave) - you think we can do ANYTHING about that???

wake up MOURONS before it's TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO late...

Shekar R (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 2:47 PM)

Remember he is the Media's greatest puppet master. Without all the prior exposure with the media he would not have gotten elected. Remember when the media,all but one channell snubbed President Bush and said he was over exposed? The media is in the tank for Obama. He knows it and is using it to his favor. The greatest media puppet master.

Fred LaCorte, Quincy Mass. (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 2:56 PM)

How can you insist GWB is "the worst" ever? Will you stil be alive in 50 years? There is plenty of time for more bad to be done.

Lynn (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 2:58 PM)

I am enjoying the republicans going wild. They are not in control and having hissy fits because of it. Finally work is being done in DC. The other President was on vacation too much to do any work. We finally have an intelligent President who thinks and informs the people of what the objective of the bills are. However, some people are uneducated and still can not get the facts straight.

Cheryl, Westerville (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 2:59 PM)

I don't want to see the President of the United States on Letterman....talk about lack of respect for the office. I bet the UN General Assembly members who caught the show were impressed...Come on Obama time to grow up you are the leader of the free world not a celebrity!

Dana Cincinnati Ohio (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 3:01 PM)

I long for the "good ole' days" when they practically kept GWB in the closet. Could they please put this guy in the closet for the next 3 years. He is getting old fast. I don't care if he is the President of the US - enough already. Go away, take a breath, hide, anything so we don't have to look at your face 24/7. We should have known he thinks of himself much more highly than he should.

Sharon Beamer Indy IN (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 3:02 PM)

A silly question has received a lot of silly answers.

So, what is wrong with the 34% minority who think they hear too much of the President. It is bush that we heard too much of.

Dave, Maryand (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 3:02 PM)

I don't want to see him at all. It's like another reality TV show, but you already know the ending is a big let down.

Calvin Hobbes (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 3:03 PM)

Bush is gone. Obama is a commie pure and simple. He will spend this country into the ground. One more czar please and we should be able to control your entire life. ooh doesn't that feel good?!

Bob

Bob, were you in a comma for the past 8 years? During the Bush presidency, he employed 36 Czars of which 46 different people were used. The Bush Administration sat over the largest expansion of government since FDR. They squandered a budget surplus of $271B and turned it into a nearly $1Trillion deficit and that didn't include the cost of the war in Iraq. They ramrodded the Drug Bill for Seniors which helped their pharmacuitical buddies and never established how they'd pay for it. The told us the war would be paid by oil revenues from our friends in Iraq....and we still haven't seen the first penny. And Obama in 9 months is running the country into the ground??? Are you freaking kidding me???

Jack Houston, TX (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 3:03 PM)

At least we have a president who will speak to us and when he does he can speak about a subject clearly and intelligently. I cannot imagine anyone else in the White House cabinet who could be as credible.

Barry, Pennsylvania State (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 3:04 PM)

Overexposed? That's an understatement! However, if he appeared on the Fox News Channel, I'd probably watch, especially if he was to appear on The O'Reilly Factor or Glenn Beck.

MAR, Dallas, TX (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 3:04 PM)

I wonder who is running the show while Obama is consistantly in our face. enough is enough! Even people on reality TV take some time for a break! This president is good at one thing and one thing only, Community Organizing, I guess? If that is how the highest office is run were in more trouble than we know.

paul blanos totowa, nj (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 3:04 PM)

It would seem to me that unless the President is afraid that he will be asked some tough questions, that he has would rather ignore, that being interviewed on Fox by somone like O'Reilly who was fair to him during the election process would be an opportunity to educate those who don't necessarily agree or understand his policies or agenda. His only being interviewed on mainstream television programs is somewhat akin to "preaching to the choir" he has already convinced the majority of those viewers. He should spend his time educating/convincing everyone else.

Barbara Jones, Vancouver, Washington (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 3:05 PM)

http://www.harriscommerce.net/obama.swf

He is never overexposed when he is doing the right thing.

Cory Harris (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 3:05 PM)

It is strange the more one lies the more you have to defind yourself. It is strange to me the reason he is on so often. Who is leading this country the people we send to congress or the President that is supposed to be a representative of Government?
Where are we headed toward dictoralism or democarcy where everyone has a voice not just a favorite few.
Lord help us to get back to ion God we trust not the government or our economic or even religion but Gods will, way and truth. Blessing to all and Keep looking up for our redemtion is near!

Jerral Campfield Harrah, WA (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 3:06 PM)

Why should he give them any attention when they won't allow him to reach their viewers? Maybe they're afraid that Barak actually convince them of some truths that they have been made to believe was a lie.

Ap, tpa, FL (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 3:06 PM)

During the Bush years, I and people like me, were accused of an "irrational" hatred of W. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, do you Obama haters believe that your own hatred is somehow reasonable? And let's not forget,boys and girls, YOUR elected reprsentatives comprise one of three branches of government.

Joe Lafayette CO (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 3:07 PM)

Hi Guys,
I am not democrat nor republican, I am not even a voter, but I am worried about your attitude towards your own President,specifically the HEALTH CARE REFORM.You are the nation with so much wealth and yet millions of your fellows don't have health insurance. I promise you guys 3 years from now Americans will cry because they could not afford their health care insurance. Wake up people from a deep sleep. If you could not do it right now it is your children who will suffer in the future. Look at the world around you, they go forward, while America move backward.

art, matthews,NC (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 3:08 PM)

Considering the American people rely on bombastic talking heads, and boorish politicians as their source of information; it was actually refreshing to hear calmness and sanity for once on a news show. Even with that said, the American public should actually try to read the information, and process it as we were actually taught to do as students, and not rely on a set of gaping teeth coming through the boob tube.

Miss V Phoenix (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 3:32 PM)

Another fake controversy invented by the media to give the Right Wing something to complain about.

mike, san diego, ca (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 3:46 PM)

He's supposed to be PRESIDENT, not a hollywood celebrity. I can't stand that he's on TV EVERY day. What else does the guy do honestly? He's so busy selling himself that he forgot his job!!! Did anyone else catch the news clipping where he thinks we have 60 States? The man is a self worshiping moron!

Concerned, Reno, NV (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 3:47 PM)

Ever since FDR, Presidents have understood that communicating with the people during hard times is part of the job. It is reassuring to see that he's on the job. Interesting that his adversaries can't really complain about his work ethic, his intelligence, his honesty or compassion. So they complain that he talks to the American people too much. The fact that it bothers them is evidence that he's effective at it.

Kenn Amdahl, Broomfield Colorado (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 3:48 PM)

Personally I love to hear from a President of the United States who can speak intelligently to the real needs of ALL the people. I am sure Presient Obama would be very glad to spend less time on TV if he did not have to constantly address the less-than-true stories expounded by the far-our-right talk show hosts AN if the elected Republicans were not afraid to dispute the garbage put out by these host.

Juanita, Mechanicsville, Md. (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 3:54 PM)

One propoganda network versus 5. Doesn't sound like good odds or even democratic, unless ofcourse you are a liberal democrat. obama has no gonads is why he won't appear on FOX. Mo one to protect him if he does. He should confrot his so called detractors, without a teleprompter. All talk, no action.

LTCSTAN, NYC (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 3:58 PM)

Can't stand to hear him lie all the time... so I never watch him.

Media Blitz (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 3:58 PM)

All the man dose is talk, if something worked perhaps
his blab, blab would worth something. He is taking on ALL the worlds with speechs, I don't even listen anymore, he give lots of in put and no out put.
I'll say up front, I didn't vote for the man, but he IS our Pres. but a straight line of no results

R Finlen, Merritt Island, Fla (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 4:10 PM)

Over or under doesn't matter to me...I turn him off the moment I see him, and if his name is in an article or on a magazine, I pass it up.

DeeMarie, California (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 4:12 PM)

Not that this has much to do with the subject, but sometimes I wonder how many angry, red-faced, screaming Americans at these protests shouting cries of "socialism" and "czars" really know what they are talking about. Could it be that they are just parrots of the extreme-right wing media? I have nothing against conservatives and Republicans, but you guys need to keep your leash tighter on these nuts who make you look bad.

Have you not noticed that your public image is being badly damaged? Instead of being so stubborn about policies that "require" bi-partisanship, perhaps we could finally work something out and unite this fractured country.

Likewise, the Democrats need to stop being so haughty with the Republicans, as it's only making matters worse and the Republicans less likely to want to compromise on policies.

Maybe we should let more parties into government and get rid of the two-party idea. But wait, we'll never change no matter how broken our system is. I almost forgot for a minute.

Concerned U.S. Citizen (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 4:12 PM)

At least we know Obama can read a script. Give him a role in a movie with Carrot Top.

Johnny (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 4:13 PM)

Obama is a joke. People knock Bush, but in a few years they will see what a bad President is and by then all freedom will be taken from us. I get sick of people talking about the military. The people that do this has never served a day for their country, so keep your smart comments to yourself.

P.J. Monroe, La. (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 4:15 PM)

I WON'T watch Obama at all -- so I wouldn't know

catmorris, Chicago, IL (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 4:26 PM)

I am glad to see more Obama, hand firm on the wheel, connecting directly with WE THE PEOPLE. The last one hid at his ranch, talked only to his inner circle and ran the country into the ditch. Yes it is now Obama's economy. That's is why it is slowly getting better. The rest of you buy an island, elect the quiter Palin queen for the day and stick your head firmly in the sand

Tim in Geneseo (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 4:50 PM)

obama will go down as the worst president in U.S. history. His obsession with the health care bill is ego related, while the economy tanks, and he has given up the missle sheild. What a dolt!

b loudon (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 4:51 PM)

Mr. no joe, no bo,nj if it was just about Mr. Obama's policies it wouldn't be so many idiots attacking his character and making personal non-political comments about him. Nice try, but this time an opponent won't get away with spinning something so that you seem like the "concerned for the country person." By the way, where were you when BOTH wars were started and NOTHING else got done in the country? I don't remember seeing comments from you! Hmm...how did this deficit begin?? One last thing. We are moving out of the recession slowly and housing prices are going back up. Give it time and unemployment will go down. All of you President Obama naysayers keep saying how he thinks he's God, but honestly, from the time frame you want him to turn around the mess that was created, I think all of you really believe he is.

Ms. D Atl, GA (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 4:51 PM)

Please tell the President to go to Capitol Hill and shake some sense into our "representatives" and stay off TV for awhile.

Obama Supporter Baltimore MD (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 4:56 PM)

I don't mind seeing/hearing the President. What I have a problem with is his jetsetting to NYC to be Letterman followed by fighter jets and Secret Service. OR traveling the globe on vacations and Camp Obama on the tax payers' dime. (Maybe he'll adopt me)I think it's about time he starts getting down to brass tacks (not tax) and running the government.

Smitty, Podunkville, NJ (Sent Tuesday, September 22, 2009 4:56 PM)

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