Perhaps no measure better captures the public’s sentiment toward the president than job approval. It dates back to the earliest days of public opinion polling, when George Gallup asked about Franklin D. Roosevelt starting in the 1930s: “Do you approve or disapprove of the way ____ is handling his job […] Read more »
Obama job rating flat after midterm losses, unlike Bush, Ike, Truman
The midterm elections that handed losses to many Democrats across the country haven’t resulted in much change for President Obama’s approval rating – it has barely moved in over a year and remains at 43%. … While Obama’s recent job approval isn’t high by historical standards, his second-term numbers overall […] Read more »
The Worst President Since World War II?
Is Barack Obama really the worst president since World War II? The Quinnipiac Poll announced just that result result recently. There were thereafter a number of pushbacks from that conclusion, most based on the fact that such an open-end question reflects a “recency bias” in that Americans think about the […] Read more »
Will Obama Ever Be Popular Again?
Barack Obama has had an unusual presidency, winning election twice with a majority of the vote, yet frequently saddled with a job approval rating below 50 percent. In fact, only during his “honeymoon” period in 2009 and around his reelection in 2012 has a majority of the population approved of […] Read more »
Public Opinion on the ‘4s’ Through Recent History
Now that we are firmly ensconced in the summer of 2014, it is a good time to take stock of what was on the American public’s mind 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 years ago — in the early summer of previous years ending in “4” going back to […] Read more »