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 »
Why Comparisons Between LBJ and Obama Can Mislead
… The implications of Johnson’s administration for Obama are different from what many of these commentators think. What we perceive as presidential leadership (or lack of it) often reflects structural factors that are largely beyond the control of the chief executive himself — a reality of presidential power that critics […] Read more »