The Official Obama Approval Ratings Thread

[Stranger in a strange land]

I couldn't agree more.  Closing Guantanamo and all secret prisons was an excellent first move.  What needs to be done now is prosecute those who were responsible for the atrocities that took place there.
Making healthcare reform a priority is another thing I approve of.
 

You're absolutely right.  Closing Guantanamo and allowing some already confirmed 60 or so terrorists back into their terrorist camps was a great idea.

Bravo Obama!  May he be President 4 Life!

You do realize that your heroes Hillary and McCain claim that they would also have closed it?

or that it won't actually be closed for a year and that nobody will be released as a direct result of it's closing?

[Stranger in a strange land]

Minnesota (Star Tribune/Princeton Research, April 20-23):

62% Approve
25% Disapprove

http://www.startribune.com/newsgraphics/43744872.html?elr=KArksCCCWiaEyayP4O:DW3ckUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiacyKUUr

That's impossible. He's at 69% nationally and he won the state big. Junk poll.

There's a difference between approval rating (% that think he's doing a good job) and favorability rating (% who think he's a good guy). The latter is usually higher than the former.

[Stranger in a strange land]

Obama vs generic republican

No such thing.

[Stranger in a strange land]

The number you saw comes from either AP, Bloomberg, or Battleground.  Those pollsters are pretty hawkish on the difference between favorability and approval.

Every other poll, such as Rasmussen, Democracy Corps(D), NBC/WSJ, doesn't find that much difference between the ratings as do the three aforementioned pollsters.

But I still contend that asking about favorability after asking about approval is a prompt to respondents to answer the question differently.

I think there is a difference.

You can have a favourable opinion of someone, but not approve of the way they're handling the job. It's interesting, it's rarely the other way in the US.

It seems people can separate liking them as a person, from the job they do... but not consider them doing a good job but disliking them... which is what I felt for Kevin Rudd... I actually felt he was doing a good job, but I didn't like him very much...

I think Bill Clinton's approvals outran his favorability during most of his second term.

[Stranger in a strange land]

Wasn't that the same time as the Lewinsky denial???

Yes, indeed it was. I've always found it amusing how Clinton's approval ratings remained consistently high throughout the Lewinsky scandal.