The Official Obama Approval Ratings Thread

[Ronnie]

It might be just noise, guys.

Nevertheless, until Obama starts becoming fiscally responsible, I can't see his approval rating going up.

[Democratic Hawk]

Nevertheless, until Obama starts becoming fiscally responsible, I can't see his approval rating going up.

That all sounds rather rich to me Ronnie - and I know you were critical of Bush's spending. Neverthless, the president and his party when in control of Congress were far from being fiscally responsible). The House passed pay-go, yesterday, (13 Democrats voted against; 24 Republicans voted in favor). Hopefully, most of what they hope to accomplish can be funded from spending cuts elsewhere rather than tax increases. This may well mean that any further tax cuts the president would like to enact are going to have to be funded. That tells me that the Democrats are committed to fiscal responsibility - and in this environment, it ain't going to be easy

Down the line, this president is going to have to make the tough and, potentially, painful choices, on taxes and spending, his predecessor neither had the guts nor the sense to address - and that's leadership. The entire Bush presidency was characterized by an abandonment of fiscal responsibility - yet I only hear Republicans atoning for the spending. As for tax cuts, they are still proposing those as though they were some all-encompassing panacea yet in spite of $1.6 trillion enacted under Bush - the best he can bequeath is the 'Great Recession'. Doing their damdest to encapsulate Einstein's definition of insanity or what? Go down that road, and everytime a down-turn comes along, they'd be nowt left to cut

I don't particularly like either but tax-and-spend trumps borrow-and-spend. Bush could have made a conscious effort to kept the government living within its means but he didn't. In fact, the GOP rarely practices its so-called fiscal principles. Reagan didn't and W certainly didn't. Bush 41 did to a point - and if they'd had a cross, they'd have crucified him. Republicans, in sum, given their track record are hypocrites

Any one can cut taxes; politically, its the easiest thing in the world - but it takes balls to raise them, especially given the nation's 30 year old tax allergy

[Democratic Hawk]

I personally hope they just keep getting lower and lower, because I think everything about him is scary and anti-American and I'm glad my fellow citizens are starting to wise up to his act

Never expected you to be struck down by Obama Derangment Syndrome, Clay, but then you are a fan of the hate-inciting Palin. Disgusting what she elicited from her rallies. Aye they reached an international audience and its one thing for right wing fringies (as they do in other parts of the Free World, which your president leads), to engage in that but a potential Vice-President of the United States? Shame

[War on Want]

I think Republicans need to step back and see how things play out.  Obama's still very early on in his first term and there's more than enough time for him to make these falling numbers go back up again before the next election.  I personally hope they just keep getting lower and lower, because I think everything about him is scary and anti-American and I'm glad my fellow citizens are starting to wise up to his act, but Republicans need to take all of this with a grain of salt or else they'll appear as even bigger fools than they've been acting like for the past six or seven months.

How is anything Obama does scary and anti-American?

[Democratic Hawk]

I think Republicans need to step back and see how things play out.  Obama's still very early on in his first term and there's more than enough time for him to make these falling numbers go back up again before the next election.  I personally hope they just keep getting lower and lower, because I think everything about him is scary and anti-American and I'm glad my fellow citizens are starting to wise up to his act, but Republicans need to take all of this with a grain of salt or else they'll appear as even bigger fools than they've been acting like for the past six or seven months.

How is anything Obama does scary and anti-American?

At least this president is raising his country's image wherever he goes (and beyond!) - and I'd say that was a very pro-American thing to be accomplishing. Far from being an "apologist", this president is playing the role of "restorationist"

[Rob]

I think Republicans need to step back and see how things play out.  Obama's still very early on in his first term and there's more than enough time for him to make these falling numbers go back up again before the next election.  I personally hope they just keep getting lower and lower, because I think everything about him is scary and anti-American and I'm glad my fellow citizens are starting to wise up to his act, but Republicans need to take all of this with a grain of salt or else they'll appear as even bigger fools than they've been acting like for the past six or seven months.

How is anything Obama does scary and anti-American?

Clay is from Georgia. Obama is a black.

[Mr.Phips]

Just for the record, Obama is at his lowest approval and highest disapproval in Gallup polling:

Approve 55%
Disapprove 39%

http://www.gallup.com/poll/113980/Gallup-Daily-Obama-Job-Approval.aspx

It's all over!!  It's all over!!

President Obama will be a one termer!!!

BYE BYE BARACK!  BYE BYE BARACK!!

As of January 1983, Ronald Reagan looked like he was going to be one termer too given that he was riding in at 35% approval according to Gallup

Excuses excuses.  I smell desperation!!

IT'S ALL OVER!!!!!  Like an OVERBID on the Price is Right with Bob Barker.  I can even hear Barker sadly saying 'You're Over!' with the loser horns playing in the background.

No desparation here. I've always said that Obama will be held to a high standard, such is the ideological nature of America. As for Reagan's approvals, as of January 1983, I'm merely stating a fact

Reagan had an economy that grew explosively in 1983 and brought down the unemployment rate significantly.  This economy will not grow enough to bring down unemployment much over the next several years. 

[pbrower2a]

I think Republicans need to step back and see how things play out.  Obama's still very early on in his first term and there's more than enough time for him to make these falling numbers go back up again before the next election.  I personally hope they just keep getting lower and lower, because I think everything about him is scary and anti-American and I'm glad my fellow citizens are starting to wise up to his act, but Republicans need to take all of this with a grain of salt or else they'll appear as even bigger fools than they've been acting like for the past six or seven months.

President Obama has demographic trends working in his direction. The youngest voters lean strongly Democratic and are much more liberal than America as a whole. The potential new voters born between 1990 and 1994 in no way show signs of moving away from that tendency. America is becoming less white -- and no non-white groups except perhaps Vietnamese-Americans trend Republican. As the Grim Reaper takes away older and more conservative-leaning voters (by the standards of 2008), the American electorate becomes more amenable to Obama.

Another trend that can do well for Obama is practically any economic recovery. So far the worst bear market in 75 years seems to have abated:



Even if he did nothing to make this recovery possible other than "do nothing stupid" he gets the credit because you-know-who gets the blame for the dangerous downturn.

I have yet to see anything anti-American about him. We don't prove how "American" we are by endorsing recent faults of American leadership any more than a devoted spouse shows loyalty to an alcoholic by providing copious booze and excusing the drunken behavior that one expects from a heavy drinker. Putting an end to those faults is no act of disloyalty.

Scary? Maybe he seems scary because he isn't as "100% American" as you wish.  That concern need not be racial; most American blacks have no African ancestry from persons arriving in America after 1807. His African heritage reeks of the British colonial empire, and someone whose father were from Hong Kong would be no less exotic. But note well that he was born in the United States, so he fits the Constitutional requirement for the Presidency. 

He is not a Muslim; he is no more a Muslim than John Kerry is a Jew because of his father's religious heritage -- as if having a non-Christian father (or not being a Christian)  should disqualify anyone from the Presidency. He gets a perverse sort of endorsement from the condemnation of him from Mahmoud Ahmedinedjad, President of Iran (and certifiable nutcase) as a (derogatory term for a submissive black man who sells out to the white establishment).  Sure, he is without precedent as the first President not descended wholly from stock from the British Isles, Low Countries, France, Germany, and Scandinavia... does that matter?

I can think of worse strategies than "wait and see" from the GOP. Obstruction of what seem like constructive solutions will backfire. Obama might find his ratings going down -- but so will those of any possible rival. Such is no bargain for Americans other than those who seek failure of the system -- typically radicals.

I watch state polls of approval more than I watch national tracking polls -- and the most recent one for Missouri, a state that he lost in 2008 (if barely) seems to give him about a 55% approval rating. In view of the Blue Firewall (states that have not voted for a GOP nominee for President after 1988) showing no signs of weakening, and other states not in the Firewall showing recent polls positive for Obama (like Ohio), I have no cause to expect anything other than re-election in 2012. Obama will not win Missouri and lose the election.

[Tender Branson]

The new SurveyUSA polls (all conducted on July 20 among 600 state adults):

Alabama:

42% Approve (-4)
56% Disapprove (+7)

California:

66% Approve (+2)
30% Disapprove (-2)

Iowa:

56% Approve (-1)
40% Disapprove (+1)

Kansas:

41% Approve (-8)
53% Disapprove (+4)

Kentucky:

41% Approve (-6)
55% Disapprove (+4)

Minnesota:

51% Approve (-8)
46% Disapprove (+10)

Missouri:

55% Approve (+4)
42% Disapprove (-3)

New Mexico:

61% Approve (+8)
37% Disapprove (-7)

New York:

63% Approve (-2)
34% Disapprove (+4)

Oregon:

54% Approve (-2)
42% Disapprove (+1)

Virginia:

44% Approve (-15)
49% Disapprove (+13)

Washington:

56% Approve (-7)
41% Disapprove (+8)

Wisconsin:

50% Approve (-9)
45% Disapprove (+7)

[pbrower2a]

A bunch of new polls. VA is a big surprise, and it won't be long before polls turn a few states "yellow" or "tan" (NC, SC, SD, TN, AR, UT) should they appear.



The GOP still has plenty of ways to lose, and few in which to win.

[Marokai Backbeat]

I'm not quite sure I buy a couple of those polls. (Namely Minnesota and Virginia. Especially Virginia.)

[Rowan]

That is an EPIC collapse for one state.

[Landslide Lyndon]

I'm not quite sure I buy a couple of those polls. (Namely Minnesota and Virginia. Especially Virginia.)

And New Mexico is wildly swinging yet for another month.

[pbrower2a]

I'm not quite sure I buy a couple of those polls. (Namely Minnesota and Virginia. Especially Virginia.)

I show what I see and don't judge the poll unless it is somehow suspect, as in "Who are those guys?"

[You kip if you want to...]

Virginia:

44% Approve (-15)
49% Disapprove (+13)

Who the hell did they call to get an (unrealistic) swing like that?

[Devilman88]

Virginia:

44% Approve (-15)
49% Disapprove (+13)

Who the hell did they call to get an (unrealistic) swing like that?

Or just maybe their VA poll before this one was unrealistic. Anywho, this seems close to right.

[Democratic Hawk]

Virginia:

44% Approve (-15)
49% Disapprove (+13)

Who the hell did they call to get an (unrealistic) swing like that?

Or just maybe their VA poll before this one was unrealistic. Anywho, this seems close to right.

Not in a state which Obama carried by 6.3% it doesn't

[BM]

Rasmussen:

Approve 49%
Disapprove 51%

=o

[tmthforu94]

Rasmussen:

Approve 49%
Disapprove 51%

=o

Ahh, Obama's first negative approval. Given how different Rasmussen is compared to others, I expect the nexting polling to give Obama a negative approval will be early August.

[Farage]

Rasmussen:

Approve 49%
Disapprove 51%

=o

Ahh, Obama's first negative approval. Given how different Rasmussen is compared to others, I expect the nexting polling to give Obama a negative approval will be early August.

that's good news ... for obama

[Democratic Hawk]

Rasmussen:

Approve 49%
Disapprove 51%

=o

That was on the cards. No justification for it, however, given the fact that the president is governing exactly from where any rationalist knew he would, the pragmatic center-left. Cannot be any worse than the last eight years of governance with all the finesse of an idiologically-driven cackhanded incompetent and a 'Great Recession', which, fairly and squarely, vindicates that

Only time will tell but he's going to be held to a higher standard than his predecessor (and I take comfort in that because it's how it should be for any president regardless of party and ideology), who abused the center-right nature of America to the point, he got a pass in 2004. If a Democrat had been that fiscally inept, they'd have been out on their arse

Yes, the economy and the deficit is all Obama's fault

[Hash]

First negative poll. How long until the idiots call on him to resign? It's inevitable after any negative poll for any world leader, UK, France, Australia, US.

[You kip if you want to...]

CA: Boxer 45 Fiorina 41 (Rasmussen 7/22)

By Emily Swanson

Rasmussen
7/22/09; 500 likely voters; 4.5% margin of error
Mode: IVR

(Rasmussen results)

California

Job Approval / Disapproval
Pres. Obama: 57 / 43
Gov. Schwartzenegger: 38 / 60

Favorable / Unfavorable
Sen. Boxer: 50 / 47
Carly Fiorina: 30 / 35

2010 Senate
Boxer 45%, Fiorina 41%

[Devilman88]

Virginia:

44% Approve (-15)
49% Disapprove (+13)

Who the hell did they call to get an (unrealistic) swing like that?

Or just maybe their VA poll before this one was unrealistic. Anywho, this seems close to right.

Not in a state which Obama carried by 6.3% it doesn't

Yes right now Obama's approval rating is 50-53 national, so VA would be somewhere in the 48-50 range. Like I said it is close to right, not right on the money.

[Democratic Hawk]

Virginia:

44% Approve (-15)
49% Disapprove (+13)

Who the hell did they call to get an (unrealistic) swing like that?

Or just maybe their VA poll before this one was unrealistic. Anywho, this seems close to right.

Not in a state which Obama carried by 6.3% it doesn't

Yes right now Obama's approval rating is 50-53 national, so VA would be somewhere in the 48-50 range. Like I said it is close to right, not right on the money.

I don't consider that particularly close to right. Anyway, I need to see the demographic base percentages to determine whether its plausible or not. Could be too few, or too many, of this, that and the other. I'm not buying any significant drop-off from moderates, given that the president is governing from the pragmatic center-left and isn't by any stretch of the imagination a radical, not from where I stand on the issues, at least, and I consider myself a Christian Democrat