Washington Times Op-Ed Page: Sorry For Getting Basic Facts Wrong!

On April 28, I called The Washington Times editorial “Barack’s in the Basement” the worst such column of the day, citing the wrong Gallup Poll number to make the argument that President Obama was in the weakest position after the Hundred Day of any president since Eisenhower. Today,  The Times retracted the editorial.

We used figures for overall “approval” ratings for former President George W. Bush – 62 percent – and compared them to the ratings of “excellent” or “good” for Mr. Obama, which combined were 56 percent. However, when asked the same question – approve or disapprove – for Mr. Obama for the same three days of his first term, April 20-22, his rating actually was 65 percent, thus putting him above rather than below Mr. Bush.

It’s a nice gesture, but The Times still got a Drudge link and a media meme out of the deal.