Limbaugh's Favorable Rating: 19 Percent

By: Brian Montopoli
Topics: Polling

(CBS)

Over the past few weeks, the White House has been casting right-wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh as the head of the Republican Party, and based on a new CBS News poll, it appears they may be onto something: According to the poll, Limbaugh's favorable rating stands at just 19 percent, a full 43 points lower than President Obama's.

Limbaugh's unfavorable rating, meanwhile, stands at 40 percent, while 41 percent say they don't know or don't have an opinion. Not surprisingly, the conservative commentator, who has said he hopes that the president's economic policies fail, is far more popular with Republicans – 47 percent view him favorably – than with Democrats, just seven percent of whom view him favorably.

The poll also found that Republicans are relatively pessimistic about the future of their party. Just 40 percent believe the party is going in the right direction, while nearly as many – 36 percent – say it is going in the wrong direction. Among all Americans, just 27 percent say the party is going in the right direction and 48 percent say it is going in the wrong direction.

In March 1994 – right before the Republican takeover of Congress – views were quite different. A Gallup/CNN/USA Today taken at the time found that 58 percent believed the Republican leadership was taking the party in the right direction while just 24 percent thought it was headed in the wrong direction.

Read The Complete Poll (PDF)>

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Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
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by allantx456 April 8, 2009 11:23 AM EDT: These comments just show what is true about most of the American citizens today...they have no idea what is happening to the country since Obama took over. What a bunch of morons!!! All most of the so called citizens care about is that check from the Federal gov't. No wonder the Dumacrats fight immigrations changes...it keeps them in power. As Michelle so aptly put it last year...I am ashamed that I am American!!!!!!!!!!; Reply to this comment


by wheyright April 5, 2009 9:57 PM EDT: Limbaugh is an alligator mouth republican leader that has little knowledge of the real world and does not deal in the truth or the facts, just is slanted opinions and leads the republicans in opposing all progressive legislation,; Reply to this comment


by mrzerato April 4, 2009 7:44 PM EDT: George Bush has a better rating than rush. It is hard to believe. I find it funny that less than half the Republican party have a favorable opinion of Limpballs. He should do something to fix that since he is the de-facto leader of the republican party...LMAO; Reply to this comment


by March 29, 2009 10:16 PM EDT: Below 19 percent....just because the fat windbag is a racist? Just because he wants the country to fail and go into depression? Just because he thinks that because the republicanazis are no longer in power, that this country isn't worth the Constitution? Umm.....I think that first of all, that Nazi Limbaugh, along with the other flying monkey republicanazi supporters, need to be waterboarded (just like they supported waterboarding innocent people), thrown into Gitmo prison, and treated the same way that others who would subert and try to destroy the US from inside would have done to them! The aforementioned brown shirted, ignorant nazis that are the party of hate seem to think that the fat man is only a "entertainer", that he means no ill towards the US, and that his need to be as subversive and devisive as possible is only "hollywood"........yeah, and if you believe that, Der American Hitler bush was a humanitarian who would NEVER go to war before talking first...........; Reply to this comment


by realnews12 March 25, 2009 1:43 AM EDT: CBS : the Communist Broadcasting System where all good liberals get their news.

Posted by kfor777 at 10:03 AM : Mar 19, 2009

Then why are YOU here, mmmm?; Reply to this comment


by realnews12 March 25, 2009 1:40 AM EDT: So, as usual, you poll mostly Democrats and Independents (who usually lean left) with the intent of a slanted poll. Give me a break CBS.

Posted by thatchmo62 at 6:32 PM : Mar 23, 2009

The idea is to poll a representative sample of the country as a whole. Maybe you'd prefer they ask only people who are Limbaugh fans?; Reply to this comment


by thatchmo62 March 23, 2009 9:32 PM EDT: So, as usual, you poll mostly Democrats and Independents (who usually lean left) with the intent of a slanted poll. Give me a break CBS.; Reply to this comment


by actornaught March 22, 2009 11:04 AM EDT: ...Rush is only repeating the ideology that gave this country decades of greatness...
Posted by sarcasucus at 11:01 AM : Mar 19, 2009

um... yeah... i feel so... trickled on...

Seriously, rush has no ideology other than what he can say to obtain and retain audience. Nothing more. Real conservatives are utterly embarassed by his irresponsible spew.; Reply to this comment


by glenncinca-2009 March 19, 2009 5:35 PM EDT: I'm sorry, but Rush is an entertainer. He is not a politician responsible to taxpayers. Thus, his "popularity poll" numbers are meaningless. What should (and I'm sure does) matter to him are the ratings of his radio show. And those, I believe, are stratospheric or higher right now thanks to the new messiah's personal interest in trashing Rush.; Reply to this comment