Obama’s Decline In Historical Context

At The Corner, Peter Wehner cites data from an email by Nicholas Thompson, vice president of the Tarrance Group. Thompson analyzed data from the Gallup poll on Presidential approval ratings from the Eisenhower administration to the present:

Obama’s approval is down 14 points from his initial rating — tying President Clinton for the biggest drop since the Eisenhower era.
For those interested, here’s how different presidents match up when comparing their initial approval rating with their average approval rating in the August of their first term: Eisenhower +6 (from 68 to 74 percent), Kennedy +4 (from 72 to 76 percent), Nixon +3 (from 59 to 62 percent), Carter -3 (from 66 to 63 percent), Reagan +9 (from 51 to 60 percent), George H. W. Bush +18 (from 51 to 69 percent), Clinton -14 (from 58 to 44 percent), George W. Bush -1 (from 57 to 56 percent), and Obama -14 (from 68 to 54 percent).

Wehner doesn’t emphasize the point, but Obama has the lowest Gallup approval rating at this stage of his term of any post-Truman President, with the exception of Bill Clinton. I assume that what sank Clinton’s rating was Hillarycare. Seems to be a pattern there.

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