Tainted Love
His approval is headed south (from a high of 70 to 63), his disapproval is headed north (from a low of 12 to 24), and more people are unwilling not to have an opinion (down from 21 to 13). Gallup.
Among recent presidents, only one-term trainwreck Jimmy Carter had better numbers one month in … 71-9-20. Correction, war-winning economy-flummoxed one-termer George H.W. Bush, though tied with Obama in approval, had significantly lower disapproval numbers and benefited from higher uncertainty, at 63-13-24. The two-termers tend to feel a little less love. W was 62-21-17 at this point. Reagan and Clinton win the lowest numbers, at 55-18-27 and 59-29-12 respectively. Nixon was cruising in February of 1969 at 60-6-34, which tends to support his “silent majority” remarks.
But whatever he’s doing, it’s apparently working for now. NYT: A majority of Americans support him, think he’s reaching across, think Republicans are partisan spoilers. That’s how NYT reads it, anyway:
About 8 in 10 Americans said Republicans should be working in a bipartisan way rather than holding fast to their policies, the poll found, with almost three-quarters of Republican respondents agreeing that bipartisanship was preferable.
I dunno if NYT is reading that right. I think bipartisanship is preferable, too. I also think Obama and the Dem Cong leadership have made it impossible, and showed no signs of seriously pursuing it.
No wonder NYT is confused. A majority of Americans apparently want it both ways.
But 56 percent of those surveyed said the priority for the president should be following the policies he proposed during the campaign last year, rather than working with Republicans.
Maybe taking their cue from on high. NYT, by the way, compares his early term numbers to Reagan, though clearly Obama is more adored, up in one-termer territory.
Welcome, RCP, Riehlists, Memeorandizers, etal. Always good to see you. Speaking of political beauty contests, sounds like Obama’s worried about the competition from a Slumdog Governor. In other Obama admin updates, here’s an update Re Racism, Cowardice and the latest on the Hamas Stimulus Plan.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 12:43 pm Comments (4) on Monday, February 23, 2009
4 Responses to “Tainted Love”
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February 23rd, 2009 at 5:30 pm
I saw another poll {I think it was Rasmussen} that had Obama’s approval rating at 60 and his disapproval rating at 41%.
I can remember when Bush was at 92%. In fact over at pollingreport they had Bush leaving at an average of 33%.
But at least Bush had something to show for those bad numbers, like a won war. Thus far Obama has just been a disaster.
February 23rd, 2009 at 7:04 pm
Terrye, I think that would add up to 101? Oh well, some people are in two minds about him. Not me. Anything over 20 % approval ain´t natural.
February 24th, 2009 at 11:26 am
[...] for new Presidents at this point in their terms, just one month in. In fact, Jules Crittenden actually discovers some growing weakness in the numbers, with Obama’s negatives doubling in the past month (from 12% to 24%) and the number of people [...]
February 24th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
[...] my guess is that erosion will continue. Here’s the conservative take on a different poll from Jules Crittenden His approval is headed south (from a high of 70 to 63), his disapproval is headed north (from a low [...]