It’s been 16 months since President Barack Obama stepped into the White House and his approval ratings have taken a dive.
Since stepping into office with a lofty 69 percent approval in January 2009, Obama has seen his personal stock plummet to 45 percent last month, according to the latest Gallop poll. His popularity with the American people has since risen to 48 percent, but when compared to past presidents in their sixth quarter, Obama fails to measure up.
The average approval rating for the sixth quarter of presidential terms is 58 percent, while Obama is flirting below 50. Even George W. Bush — who surprisingly owns the highest approval ratings in presidential history in his sixth quarter — is high above at 77 percent. Granted, the country was still shaken from the effects of Sept. 11, but 77 percent?
After watching Obama’s rating decline, I became curious as to how this figure is assembled. Created by George Gallup in the 1930’s, the presidential approval ratings gave the world a general consensus of how we think our current president is holding up in the Oval Office.
In a graph of Gallop Poll approval ratings covering the previous 12 presidents, only Bill Clinton finished with a higher rating than when inaugurated into office. So how important are these approval ratings and how much attention should the public give these numbers? Based on political stance, one can find all types of numbers for our current president.
CBS News, FOX News, CNN, NBC, ABC and Newsweek are just a fraction of the media outlets that throw numbers out to support their stance on Obama. FOX News, a primarily right-wing network, recently recorded a 46 percent approval rating for the president, while ABC News, a primarily left wing network, recorded a 53 percent rating over the same time frame.
Obama has also seen his approval from the Republican Party dwindle since last year. In January 2009, 41 percent of republicans approved Obama’s performance. In March 2010, that number faded to 11 percent. With all these numbers — unless I actually follow politics — I’m not sure what I should believe when it comes to how well our president is performing his job.
One thing I’ve noticed is that Obama’s public image seems to be taking a serious punch as the months go by. Unless our 45th president can turn his term around, a new leader might be called upon in 2012.