Saturday, December 12, 2009
Why Paul Krugman has sent his resume to the Wall Street Journal
Rasmussen...
Most voters (55%) don’t know enough about Paul Krugman to venture even a soft opinion about him. Those with an opinion are fairly evenly divided —- 22% favorable and 22% unfavorable ... with four percent (4%) voicing a Very Favorable opinion and six percent (6%) a Very Unfavorable view.[ht: Luskin]
But if people are asked about "New York Times columnist Paul Krugman", the numbers shift significantly. Once he is identified with that publication, his unfavorable ratings jump 15 points to 37%. The number with a Very Unfavorable view more than triples to 20%. However, Krugman’s favorable ratings show little improvement, inching up only three points to 25%...
[OTOH] John Fund was viewed favorably by 12% of voters and unfavorably by 22%. Just one percent (1%) had a Very Favorable opinion of him, and six percent (6%) offered a Very Unfavorable view.
However, when Fund was identified with the Wall Street Journal, his numbers jumped to 34% favorable and 20% unfavorable.
In the case of both Krugman and Fund, the change in perceptions between the two surveys says more about public perceptions of their newspapers than it does about the columnists themselves. A February 2008 survey found that just 24% had a favorable opinion of the New York Times...
