Breaking Down Obama's Approval Rating Slide
The latest CBS News Poll, conducted in early October, found President Obama's approval rating hasn't changed much over the past few months, but it is down from the high he reached in April, as he neared the end of his first hundred days in office.
The president's overall job approval rating was 56 percent in early October, with 34 percent disapproving, and 10 percent saying they don't know. Approval dropped twelve points since April, when 68 percent approved.
Mr. Obama has lost ground with independents and Republicans. In the October CBS News Poll, just 20 percent of Republicans approved, down from 31 percent in April. Most recently 52 percent of independents approved, down 13 points from 65 percent. 91 percent Democrats approved in April; 87 percent do so now.
According to CBS News Polls, other recent presidents have experienced drops in their approval ratings at similar points in their presidencies.
There was a twelve point drop in Ronald Reagan's approval rating by the fall of his first year in office, and he too was grappling with a bad economy. In April 1981, 67 percent approved of the job President Reagan was doing; by September approval had fallen to 55 percent, with 33 percent disapproving. President Jimmy Carter's approval rating dropped nine points, from 64 percent in April 1977 to 55 percent by October. President Bill Clinton's stayed about the same: 49 percent approved in May 1993, as did 48 percent in October.
Of course, other presidents have gained ground in their approval ratings during their first year in office. President George W. Bush, who has received both the highest and the lowest approval rating of any modern president, saw his approval rating soar to 90 percent in October 2001, just after the terrorist attacks.
Recent CBS News Polls
CBS News Poll Database
Sarah Dutton is the CBS News director of surveys. Poll Positions is weekly Hotsheet feature on polling trends from the CBS News Survey and Polling Unit. Click here for more posts from the series.
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. The president's overall job approval rating was 56 percent in early October, with 34 percent disapproving, and 10 percent saying they don't know. Approval dropped twelve points since April, when 68 percent approved.
(CBS)
Mr. Obama has lost ground with independents and Republicans. In the October CBS News Poll, just 20 percent of Republicans approved, down from 31 percent in April. Most recently 52 percent of independents approved, down 13 points from 65 percent. 91 percent Democrats approved in April; 87 percent do so now.
?OBAMA APPROVAL RATINGS BY PARTY
| 10/2009 | 4/2009 | |
| Republicans | 20% | 31% |
| Democrats | 87% | 91% |
| Independents | 52% | 65% |
According to CBS News Polls, other recent presidents have experienced drops in their approval ratings at similar points in their presidencies.
There was a twelve point drop in Ronald Reagan's approval rating by the fall of his first year in office, and he too was grappling with a bad economy. In April 1981, 67 percent approved of the job President Reagan was doing; by September approval had fallen to 55 percent, with 33 percent disapproving. President Jimmy Carter's approval rating dropped nine points, from 64 percent in April 1977 to 55 percent by October. President Bill Clinton's stayed about the same: 49 percent approved in May 1993, as did 48 percent in October.
Of course, other presidents have gained ground in their approval ratings during their first year in office. President George W. Bush, who has received both the highest and the lowest approval rating of any modern president, saw his approval rating soar to 90 percent in October 2001, just after the terrorist attacks.
?PRESIDENTIAL APPROVAL RATINGS - FIRST TERM
| Spring | Fall | |
| Barack Obama | 68% | 56% |
| George W. Bush | 56% | 90% |
| Bill Clinton | 49% | 48% |
| George H.W. Bush | 61% | 69% |
| Ronald Reagan | 67% | 55% |
| Jimmy Carter | 64% | 55% |
Recent CBS News Polls
CBS News Poll Database
Sarah Dutton is the CBS News director of surveys. Poll Positions is weekly Hotsheet feature on polling trends from the CBS News Survey and Polling Unit. Click here for more posts from the series.
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I know it is tough to borrow all the money--I would have raised taxes on the top 3 percent of the richest as soon as I could have after taking office.
How many billions and millions does any one need to invest, hide in foreign banks, which is being brought to light, and put in the bank. The Bush family are very rich and how many jobs did they create, how many tractors did W. Buy for his ranch? Did you see the shack that had boards missing when they held press conferences at the ranch? He would not even buy a board to replace the missing.
What a shock!!!
He'll be in the 30s a year from now.
So now along comes Barack Obama who sees all the massive amounts of greed and the basic unfairness of our entire system as it has been developing over the past 8 years. And Americans responded to his calls for change and elected him our next president. And now those same GREED interests that have caused all this massive damage to America's middle class are spending massive amounts of money funding campaigns of lies and distortions to try to discredit a man who sees all there is that is wrong with America right now. And so now there is a huge headwind that is facing the president due to all these "special interests" working against all his initiatives.
The economy clearly has been saved from total collapse due to the presidents policies and swift action.
The healthcare reform with a public option has clear support from the American public in the latest polling. It is the extremist Republicans in the Senate that are refusing support, despite a majority of Americans wanting this healthcare reform passed. And this level of support is even after all the millions spent by the "special greed interests" to line the pockets of the Republicans and the onslaught of lies and distortions put out by right-wingnuts on healthcare.
As far as coming together. Many, many overtures have been made by the Democrats to the extremists Republicans and the Republicans have rebuffed every single one of them. You cannot come together with these extremist Republicans. There ideology has moved so far to the right that all the centrists have left the party and now you have nothing left but narrow-minded ideologues who would never consider the common good.
As far as Afghanistan, the president is not shooting from the hip like Bush/Cheney. He's taking the proper amount of time to assess the best course of action to achieve the best result. And this time with America's interest at heart rather than plugging Halliburton into the public treasury.
And your H1N1 comment is just stupid. The president cannot make the labs produce the vaccine any faster than they already are. The labs have been going full bore since the pandemic was first identified and they said that the yields are not quite as good as they were hoping. This is nothing that the president or anyone else has any control over.
There has never been a president who has had to work as hard as President Obama in his first year and yet you complain because he will take a day to attend some deliberations that promote the United States of America. And yes, President Obama won a Nobel Prize because of his power to inspire billions of people around the world. Not only did America celebrate his election. The whole world watched the campaign and could see that this was a truly inspirational leader. A leader with a vision not just of four years, but with a long vision of a better future, a bright future for the US and also a bright future for the whole world.
President Obama is facing the most massive firestorm of "special interest" contrived lies and distortions than has ever been faced by any president at any time in our country's history. The amount of money being spent by private "special interests" at trying to undermine the president is huge. These "special greed interests" are well-heeled and nearly all benefit from the status-quo. A status-quo that has brought us an economic crisis, a housing crisis, a credit crisis, a mortgage foreclosure crisis, the huge healthcare insurance crisis. All of these were caused by GREED. And those that benefit from the greed-based status-quo are now trying to conduct a campaign of lies against a great man. The rest of the world has recognized the greatness of Barack Obama and it is time for every American to realize what a great man we have elected as our president. These type of people only come along maybe once every 50 years. We are indeed very lucky to have him now when our nation needs a young, strong, visionary who wants equal rights for all, fair wages and pay for all, and a stronger better educated American workforce that can compete in the global market.
Shame on those who would act to undermine such values and our president.
What a joke! He got elected. He bailed out the banks. He gave a good speech once. His wife dresses nice. He gave a good speech once. I believe that anyone who supports abortion rights does not have "such values." He supports the destruction of innocent life..there you go for your values. What happened to the equal rights for all? Where is the fairness in murder? Go to sleep on that one.
Your post is baloney.
Just like Obama.