Obama's Low Poll Numbers Mirror Past Presidents'

CBS

A year and a half into his presidency, and just months head of the midterm elections, President Barack Obama's approval rating is 44 percent, according to the latest CBS News Poll, conducted July 9-12. This rating matches his previous low from March of this year, and is down 24 points from his high of 68 percent reached in April 2009. So how does President Obama stack up against past presidents at similar points in their presidencies?

At 44 percent, Mr. Obama's approval rating is similar to those of Bill Clinton (42 percent) and Ronald Reagan (42 percent) at comparable times in their presidencies. Mr. Obama's rating is slightly higher than Jimmy Carter's (38 percent).

Like Mr. Obama, these past presidents were plagued by economic troubles early in their presidencies - and Mr. Clinton attempted to reform health care. During the summer of 1982, President Reagan was trying to cope with a national unemployment rate of over 9 percent -- similar to the job situation Mr. Obama confronts today.

As is traditionally the case, these three presidents -- Reagan, Clinton and Carter -- saw their party lose seats in the midterm elections during their first term. In 1994, during Clinton's presidency, the Democrats lost a net of 54 seats in Congress, paving the way for the "Republican Revolution".

However, for Presidents Reagan and Clinton, the country's economy slowly improved, their approval ratings crept up and both were re-elected, with Mr. Reagan winning by a landslide. President Reagan also benefited from a bit of a rallying effect when he sent U.S. troops into the Caribbean island of Grenada in the fall of 1983.

Things worked out differently for Jimmy Carter. In addition to a sluggish economy, President Carter faced an oil crisis as well as the American hostage situation in Iran and he was defeated by Mr. Reagan in 1980.

Both George W. Bush, and his father, George H.W. Bush, enjoyed high approval ratings a year and a half into their presidencies. In July 2002, George W. Bush's approval rating was 70 percent -- his rating had sky-rocketed after the attacks of September 11, 2001, and remained above 60 percent until mid-2003. Going against history, the president's party, the Republicans, actually gained seats in the congressional elections of 2002.

But the public's goodwill would eventually come to an end. Shortly after Mr. Bush was re-elected, Americans began to sour on the war in Iraq, and his ratings suffered. At no time during his second term in office would his approval rating reach 50 percent in CBS News Polls.

For Bush "41", the country rallied around him in the summer of 1990 as the U.S. deployed troops to Saudi Arabia amid Iraq's invasion of Kuwait - 66 percent approved of the job he was doing as president. His rating climbed even higher as the U.S. launched Operation Desert Storm in 1991 against Iraq. However, President George H.W. Bush's popularity was short-lived. As the economy took a nosedive, so did his approval ratings, and he lost re-election in 1992.

President Obama's current marks are considerably lower than those given to both John F. Kennedy (66 percent) and Dwight D. Eisenhower (75 percent), according to Gallup Polls. Both of these presidents were popular throughout their time in office.

History shows that the condition of the country's economy has been critical to the success and failure of many presidents. Speaking about the economy to a Ford assembly plant in Chicago on Thursday, Mr. Obama said, "It's going to take more time to heal from all the damage that was done. We are headed in the right direction."

It remains to be seen how long Americans can wait.

---

Jennifer De Pinto is manager of election and survey information for CBS News. Click here for more of her posts on the Hotsheet.

[presclayiii]

Right along with there lack of preserving protecting & defending the Constitution? and peoples rights. and freedoms up holding the law

[John_Wz]

I going to see if they will allow html to go through. I will try putting in the url to the excel spreadsheet where I normalized President Obama's rating for Increase in unemployment insurance and for how other presidents (viz,. Carter and Reagan) did under similar circumstances.

Here goes: <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/truthisstrangerthanfictionx/Obama_ratings.xls">Obama ratings better than Carter and Reagan</a><p>

I doubt if they allow links but it's worth a try.___John W.

[John_Wz]

Well, well. Finally someone in M$M has thought to compare Obama's ratings to other president's.

Only you should have compared his ratings to other presidents who had recessions to deal with.. as I did, here:

https://sites.google.com/site/truthisstrangerthanfictionx/Obama_ratings.xls

I looked for past presidents who had recessions but no wars or other circumstances to muddy the waters. I could only come up with Carter and Reagan.. They had recessions and they fared WORSE THAN OBAMA. If President Obama's rating was as sensitive to the increase in the Unemployment rate as Carter and Reagan (averaged) he would be at 31% now instead of 44%.

Why is that? My guess is because, despite the GOP's propaganda, people realize the reason the unemployment rate is high and the economy is a mess is because of Republican idiot policies of Deregulation. They realize too that the Republicans are trying mightily to sabotage any recovery .. and they are doing a good job of it. Companies are sitting on record amounts of cash afraid to hire (they have enough cash to hire 2.4 million people for 5 years at $70,000 a year! Why are they so afraid? Because they do not have confidence the Government will be able to build our way out of this Republican Dystopia in no small part because the GOP has fough EVERY STIMULUS BILL, EVERY UNEMPLOYMENT EXTENSION BILL AND EVEH VOTED AGAINST THE BILL TO PROVIDE LOANS TO SMALL BUSINESSES TO HELP THEM HIRE AND FINANCE INVENTORIES AND MEET PAYROLLS!

The GOP want to kill any recovery from the economic disaster they created so they can campaign saying "look the Dems can't fix the economy!"

[John_Wz]

I don't know if they will allow html on this site but if so here is the url in active link form (if they will allow it) to the excel spreadsheet normalizing Obama's ratings for an increase in unemployment compared to Carter and Reagan.

<a href="https://sites.google.com/site/truthisstrangerthanfictionx/Obama_ratings.xls">Pres. Obama doing better than Carter and Reagan</a><p>

... Let's see if they will allow html. (if not you'll have to copy the url I put in my OP and paste it into your navigation window at top of window just above the tool bar)

[AlCollum]

Let's stick to the facts...Obama hasn't changed the Washington mentality at all...BHO will go down as a worse president than Carter, hands down...Since in office the has thumbed his nose to the populous and the Constitution. He is always picking the wrong side, but what did we expect from a socialist Muslim? What did we expect economically from a man that had never ran anything, not even an ice cream stand?

[AlCollum]

Let's stick to the facts...Obama hasn't changed the Washington mentality at all...BHO will go down as a worse president than Carter, hands down...Since in office the has thumbed his nose to the populous and the Constitution. He is always picking the wrong side, but what did we expect from a socialist Muslim? What did we expect economically from a man that had never ran anything, not even an ice cream stand?

[Get_Smart_USA]

BHO is a very elusive, mystery person. Many questions have arisen about him????? The original, long-form 1961 Hawaiian birth certificate?. ??
Marriage license between Obama?s father (Barak Sr.) and mother (Stanley Ann Dunham) ? not found, not released ?
Obama?s baptism records ? sealed ?
Obama?s adoption records ? sealed ?
Records of Obama?s and his mother?s reptriation as US citizens on return from Indonesia ? not found, not released ?
Name change (Barry Sotero to Barack Hussein Obama) records ? not found, not released ?
Noelani Elementary School (Hawaii) ? not released ?
Punahou School financial aid or school records ? not released ?
Occidental College financial aid records ? not released. (These records were, however, subpoenaed but Obama lawyers succeeded in quashing the subpoena in court. No other Occi records have been released.)? No one knows him.
Columbia College records ? not released ? No one knows him?
Columbia senior thesis ? not released ?
Harvard Law School records (not mentioned below, but not released)
Obama?s law client list ? sealed ?
Obama?s files from career as an Illinois State Senator ? sealed ?
Obama?s record with Illinois State Bar Association ? sealed
Obama?s medical records ? not released ?
Obama?s passport records ? not released ?

[Get_Smart_USA]

Maybe he got his degrees online.....since no one remembers him????

[no_koolaid4me]

Where did you get your information from? Can you provide a link? I would be very interested to know--are records of past presidents, Bush, Clinton sealed?

[Dont_Tread_on_me]

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Tens of thousands of people lined up at an East Point shopping center hoping to get federal housing assistance became unruly Wednesday morning with reports of fights breaking out in the crowd.

Yeah BHO is real uniter, He'll have us all standing in lines waiting for the public hand-outs... Thanks Democrats...

[mybuzzcomments]

The man will go down in history the same as JC, except his nickname will be the "Destroyer"

[Maxgypsy]

Obama is a puppet in an empty suit.

[maxboll]

I ADMIRE WHY THE BEST PRESIDENTS IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA OFTEN IN DEMOCRATIC PARTY. HAVE THEY SUPPERIOR IQ'S THEN REBUBLICANS? I THINK SO. THE US PRESS AGREE NOW PRESIDENT OBAMA IS ONE OF THE BEST.

[Panchester]

Sure, where do we start ? Carter ? Clinton ?
The assuring part is that US Press and you agree on that !!
Because he is so smart, all of his credentials from his collage days are locked. The only President ever who did that. Because he is so smart, every time he gives a speech without teleprompter, he put's tye shoe straight in his mouth. Because he is so smart, he thinks that Mexico and Austria have their own languages.
Because he is so smart, he is plain communist which adores Lenin and Russia so much that he gave Russian name (Sasha) to one of his daughters. Come to think about it - he is so smart he may be working for Magnavox !