In July 2007, as candidates on both sides of the political aisle jockeyed for position in the forthcoming open-seat presidential election, the Republican Party was facing an election environment headlined by a president from their party with a 29% job approval rating. Today, 16 months before the 2016 open-seat presidential election, President Barack Obama has a 46% job approval rating. …
But Obama’s relative strength, compared with Bush, is somewhat mitigated by the fact that overall satisfaction with the way things are going in the country was actually the same in the summer of 2007 as it is now — at the 26% to 28% level. CONT.
Frank Newport, Gallup