Obama Still Loved By The Over-Educated

President Obama's popularity has slipped among a wide swath of the population. Among the nation's over-educated, however, he continues to do just fine.

Gallup surveyed more than 25,000 voters over the past calendar year and found that the president remains well-liked among those with multiple degrees.

Fifty-eight percent of respondents with a postgraduate degree approve of the job Obama is doing, according to the study, compared to 49 percent of college graduates, 46 percent of those with some college education and 50 percent with high school education or less.

Indeed, while Obama's standing has fallen among each of these four groups since taking office, it is the postgraduate bunch who has stayed most closely committed, even giving the president a slight uptick in approval ratings over the last month.

The findings feed into the stereotypical political narrative that those with an advanced education are decidedly liberal and that those who are decidedly liberal are committed to Democratic politicians. Gallup, in fact, makes such a conclusion itself.

Since he has become president, postgraduates have been among his more reliable supporters, backing him at higher levels than do those in other educational groups.

But the relationship between "educational attainment and support for Obama" is nuanced. For instance, black voters, regardless of their educational achievements, back Obama at roughly a 90 percent clip. But with non-Hispanic white voters, the gap is quite large when delineating by education level.

Fifty-four percent of non-Hispanic whites with a postgraduate degree favor the job Obama is doing. Just 38 percent of non-Hispanic whites with a high school education or less say the same thing.

Comments

[polishlogician]

12:24 PM on 02/22/2010

interesting proposal; seems like financial aid for college tuition, the schools (i.e., insurance companies) can continue to raise rates, but the individual student (read you and me) doesn't have to pay much of the cost; in fact, the typical family of four table shown in page 1-2 of the proposal seems very generous to families with income up to $88K. Millions of families will have substantially much lower premiums/co-pay's, portability and absence of pre-existing condition screening--especially those under 18 which will take effect immediately upon the bill's passage--I think this and the 'biggest American tax cut' (referenced in point one of the proposal) will be the general talking points going forward.

The argument may be raised that the gov't paying (aka financial aid) will eventually lead to greater taxes, but with gov't paying the bills there will also be oversight in regards to insurance companies and general compliance with the dictates of the feds (like there are in terms of accreditation with schools and colleges). Hence, perhaps cost curve/inflation can be achieved by fiat (profits regulated ala utility companies). As for higher taxes, that may or may not play out, the return to Clinton tax bracket structure seems assured and altogether innocuous (can there be any cogent argument that we were suffering in the 90's at such rates).

[kng229]

08:48 AM on 02/03/2010

Interesting how the author chose "over-educated" instead of "highly educated." It sounds like someone is upset they didn't get accepted into grad school....

[Lawyermommy1]

05:21 PM on 02/01/2010

Obama is supported more by the "super" educated? I knew there was something true about the elitist claim. GASP! Who wrote this article any how and how many people did he interview? It all reads flaky to me. Yawwwn

He is doing the best he can do. He will be supported by most of those who voted him in. The rest of the anti-Obama folks are contributing what they can to Fox news. Oh, well! That is politics.

[kinnycut]

09:07 PM on 01/31/2010

I reckon they must have must have missed a few in their survey because I wouldn't consider myself over educated, perhaps enlightened, but definitely not over educated. Using a phrase like over educated is kind of dangerous because it makes you think that there are some people out there that actually think that a person could be educated beyond their intelligence, and that is just plain stupid. I can't imagine anyone wanting to be in the stupid group, but I have met a lot of folks that would to fit in that group quite well.

[Truth Wins]

10:59 AM on 01/31/2010

So.... education reform won't do any harm! Maybe then those with a very solid education will not be labeled as "over-educated" as if it was something b.ad.

[wigginnutz]

10:34 AM on 01/31/2010

I almost forgot......I will proudly wear the label "Over-educated" any day of the week, even though it really does not make sense. You can never be over-educated.

[wigginnutz]

10:30 AM on 01/31/2010

Thank you for pointing out the obvious. Those of us that have put in the hard work and time studying and researching understand what it is that BO is doing. It is generally the under-educated segment of society that expected everything to be fixed on the day of his inauguration. It is not completely the peoples fault, however, it does explain a lot about the viewers of Faux and the propaganda they are spewing. We need to work hard on educating our children better and make it a requirement that they all take economics, government and civics, and US history classes in order to graduate. The most advanced classes in these fields are generally electives that college bound students take, yet these are the ones that actually will teach the things that are most needed.

[eveready]

11:08 AM on 01/31/2010

My compliments on your choice of screen name, Winggintz. As for myself I have a BS and MD from Harvard and a PhD from MIT, so I assume I qualify as "overeducated." If so I would like to exclude myself from the cabal of obsequious adherents who have been deluded by Jefe Obama.

I do not dislike Obama, I despise him, precisely because I do surround myself with educated perceptive individuals all of whom share the success of having gifted major contributions to humanity by way of their capacity for independent thought. An attribute the handmaiden from Chicago cannot even contemplate.

Obama is not a "terrific speaker". He is not a "very smart guy". He is not a "brilliant policy wonk." As far as I can tell, he never took an undergraduate course in science, or a course in economics that required calculus, nor would have passed one had he enrolled. As his press conference on health care showed last summer, he cannot string together a logical argument on his own (no, the problem is not that doctors are prescribing the blue pill over the red pill). Further, even when reading aloud a prepared text, he is unable to catch obvious illogic in what he is saying.

Feckless abasement ,cloaked in relentless, "unprecedented" self aggrandizement, topped off by blithe dismissal of contrary opinion by means of recurring prevarication ARE NOT personal attributes championed by educated individuals.

[rflctammt]

12:18 PM on 01/31/2010

I remember you from my school days.
Over-educated in one walk of life, perhaps, but completely learning disabled in another.

My sympathies to your co-workers and family.

[Dixiedoo]

03:54 PM on 01/31/2010

Lord, you're cranky.

All that education and the best you have to offer to this discourse is to malign the character of probably the best U.S. President this century may ever see??

"Despise" is a pretty strong word.. I'm thinking it may be race-driven, your comments; there's no hope in your words, no fairness, no appreciation of the gifts he's bringing to the job, let alone the energy so your vitriol doesn't seem to stem from any appropriate place. Haven't any of those "educated perceptive individuals" you surround yourself with taught you anything about community? With all that education, I certainly hope you've contributed more to this world than that snotty diatribe.

Peace, baby.

[genunine]

10:21 AM on 01/31/2010

Some are overly sensitive about this over-educated term. Don't succumb to this knee-jerk reaction; there is no need to defend knowledge, which is undermined only by a lack of common sense.

[nolalily]

10:07 AM on 01/31/2010

There's no such thing as "over" educated. HuffPost, are you people for real? Wanna keep working against progress in America? Keep denigrating education.

[pissdoffinohio]

09:49 AM on 01/31/2010

"over-educated"?

i'm happy to be in this side!

[obama20082012]

09:31 AM on 01/31/2010

What in the heck is 'over educated'? That appears to be a headline only a tr0ll would love.

[anothervoice]

08:52 AM on 01/31/2010

I have news for you. He's still pretty popular with the under-educated as well.

[jessicajuliette]

06:39 AM on 01/31/2010

i'm often told i'm "over-educated."...it's a curse like being over-beautiful(which i am also told often) sigh

[realitytrumpsbull]

06:34 AM on 01/31/2010

Figures don't lie, but liars figure, and I figure that President Obama is the most popular president we've had in some time, now. If you tally up the 54% with the 38%, that's still pretty substantial support numbers, averaging 46%. I like Obama because when the man opens his mouth to say something, I don't automatically cringe. Our last President was a college grad, and to give him credit where credit is due, he did all right, but had a low, low, absymally low 29% approval rating overall. If you average the three percentages listed in this story, it's still 50% or higher. How much support has he lost because not everybody got what they wanted for Christmas? Hard to say, but the Constitution, which he swore to uphold and defend, doesn't promise you riches, or happiness. And, that's America for you.
But, for those that DON'T like Obama, how's that platform coming along? Another part of this whole thing is that at 4-year intervals, people get to throw their hats in the ring for the job. So, who's up next? Or do people so far favor Obama for a second term?

[rflctammt]

12:32 PM on 01/31/2010

Fanned, faved, and highly respected.

The thing that so many folks just can't get their brains around is that Obama is truly concerned with America "today" - though he's wise enough to know good old American Instant Gratification won't get us where we need to be. He is NOT concerned with being America's NEXT president. It's almost unheard of - and people on both sides just don't know what to do with it.

[scottco]

06:12 AM on 01/31/2010

Sooo,
Can someone tell me how much education is too much?
Kind of like saying someone is too healthy.

[Truth Wins]

11:00 AM on 01/31/2010

Excellent comparison!