Peter Roff: Obama’s Sinking Approval Ratings Are Even Worse Than They Look
Having come into office with an ambitious agenda to remake America, Barack Obama is discovering that time is not his friend. According to the latest USA Today/Gallup poll, Obama's approval rating has dropped by nine points, down to 55 percent from where it was when he first entered the White House six months ago.
On its own, a nine-point drop over that period of time does not seem like a cause for much concern, especially when a majority of the country continues to approve of the job he is doing. But there are plenty of warning signs within the data, on its own and measured against other presidencies.
A 55 percent approval rating at this point in time puts him in 10th place over all among presidents who have served since Gallup began tracking presidential approval and disapproval in the 1940s. He is less popular than both Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush were at the same period—and they both lost their bids for a second term.
On the other hand, as Gallup points out in its analysis of the data, Obama is more popular now than two-term President Bill Clinton was six months into his administration. But Clinton was a minority president; even though he won the White House twice it was never with a majority of the popular vote. So he didn't have as far to fall as Obama does.
The decline in Obama's job approval number is matched, overmatched really, by a significant increase in the number of people who disapprove of the job he is doing as president. That number is up 16 points—to 41 percent—from the first time the survey was taken during the Obama presidency....
Read entire article at US News & World Report
On its own, a nine-point drop over that period of time does not seem like a cause for much concern, especially when a majority of the country continues to approve of the job he is doing. But there are plenty of warning signs within the data, on its own and measured against other presidencies.
A 55 percent approval rating at this point in time puts him in 10th place over all among presidents who have served since Gallup began tracking presidential approval and disapproval in the 1940s. He is less popular than both Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush were at the same period—and they both lost their bids for a second term.
On the other hand, as Gallup points out in its analysis of the data, Obama is more popular now than two-term President Bill Clinton was six months into his administration. But Clinton was a minority president; even though he won the White House twice it was never with a majority of the popular vote. So he didn't have as far to fall as Obama does.
The decline in Obama's job approval number is matched, overmatched really, by a significant increase in the number of people who disapprove of the job he is doing as president. That number is up 16 points—to 41 percent—from the first time the survey was taken during the Obama presidency....