Friday, February 27, 2009

Obama Less Popular Than Jimmy Carter

So says Gallup.

One month in and his approval rating went from 68% to 63%. Jimmy Carter had the highest approval rating at this point, at 71%. Of course, at 55%, Reagan's approval was the lowest since Nixon, so the title of this post could just as easily been Obama More Popular Than Reagan. Which is an interesting commentary on the power of presentation.

The interesting data here though is the disapproval rating. Obama's went from 12% to 24% in a month. The average rating since Nixon is only 16%, which at first glance would seem to make Obama's quite high. However, it is actually right in line with the disapproval ratings of Bush and Clinton, there's being 21% and 29% respectively.

There's likely some commentary there about our political discourse of the last 16 years.

HT: Greg Mankiw

1 comment:

Frank Staheli said...

At the rate his economic stimulus plans are "succeeding", Obama cannot possibly hope for a second term unless by then a majority of us become convinced that he's the next best thing since Mussolini.