Fareed Zakaria, writing in Newsweek:
Recall that George W. Bush’s approval rating on Sept. 10, 2001, was about 40 percent. After 9/11, it quickly climbed to 93 percent.
Really? In what poll? Peter Wehner points out that Gallup had President Bush at 51% on September 10, 2001. Maybe he’s referring to some long-forgotten Newsweek poll? Newsweek’s polling is by far the worst (as judged by its election predictions), so it’s plausible that it could have been an 11-point outlier.
ASIDE: This doesn’t really undermine Zakaria’s point, which is the existence of a rally effect, but he still should get the facts right.
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