The Official Obama Approval Ratings Thread

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I agree with pbrower, the Texas race may be closer than most people suspect, if only when Sarah Palin is involved.

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Why so much hate?

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Perhaps the lame duck session?

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Rasmussen Obama (National)

Approve 49%, u.

Disapprove 49%, -1.

"Strongly Approve" is at 30%, +1.  "Strongly Disapprove" is at 36%, u.

=O
Obama's breaking even?  On Rasmusen!

The end is nigh!!!

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Wierd how Texas is in the same category as Ohio...

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Obama's approvals were on the upswing even before Tucson. You could say it was because of the lame duck successes but OTOH legislative productivity didn't have any positive effect on his numbers before the midterms.

I think the main reason is that suddenly people became more optimistic about the economy. But what happened that changed their perceptions so much? Jobs numbers are still mediocre and incomes are still stagnant. 

I fact, Gallup has his approval rating start to rise in the very begining of January.  People could be more optimistic because of the new year.

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And the Tucson jump is over.

Oh wow, Obama is at 50% on Rasmussen he's doing terribly! /sarcasm.

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"Fair."  I've said this before, and will say it again:  I think a lot of people do not realize that "Fair" is considered a bad thing.

Wait, "fair" is considered bad?

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Okay, now its just getting sad.

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How about we wait a few days before jumping to conclusions?

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I honestly can't think of anything in particular about Obama's handling of the Egypt situation that would cause a drop in approval, one reason why I'm sceptical of these signifying something other than a blip.

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Also, Obama's handling of Egypt has been beyond incompetent. 

Crushing the protests wouldn't have been competent. Especially since we were cool with the one in Tunisia. That would not look good.

There are other solutions than supporting regime change and supporting the crushing of the protests.

Such as?

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Gallup is now at 46% approve 45% disaprove. 

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Also, Obama's handling of Egypt has been beyond incompetent. 

Crushing the protests wouldn't have been competent. Especially since we were cool with the one in Tunisia. That would not look good.

There are other solutions than supporting regime change and supporting the crushing of the protests.

Such as?

Such as shutting up, like he did with the protests in Iran.

Certainly that's an option, but not a very good one, it would make Obama appear weak and indecisive.

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One thing I noticed about Obama's dip in the polls (at least in Gallup), ALL of the decline in support from Obama came from independents, Democrats and Republicans have remained constant in their approval of Obama in the past few days.

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Perhaps independents are just very fickle.

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One thing I noticed about Obama's dip in the polls (at least in Gallup), ALL of the decline in support from Obama came from independents, Democrats and Republicans have remained constant in their approval of Obama in the past few days.

No.  His numbers are basically right back where they were on January 1st, and his current numbers are statistically identical to those ones in basically all the categories.  The only sub-group that has shown potentially significant movement is race, where his approval is up 7 points with Hispanics and down 8 with Blacks.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/politics.aspx
Take a look at Obama job approval by party affiliation, Independents went from 49% approve to 42%, in the same time from, Democrats went from 84% to 83%, while Republicans went from 14% to (gasp) 14%.

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Gallup Obama Job Approval: http://www.gallup.com/Home.aspx
Approval: 47 (+1)
Disapproval 44 (-1)

Obama appears to be rebounding on Gallup as well.

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Gallup: http://www.gallup.com/home.aspx

Approve 48% (+1)
Dissaprove 44% (--)

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Gallup has Obama at 51% approval, 42% dissaproval.

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Rasmussen is looking like a bizzare outlier on the RCP average. Reminds me of the early days when everyone else had Obama in the 60s and Rasmussen had him a good ten points lower.

It could be another weird coincidence, only with Gallup having a good Obama sample and Rasmussen having a bad one.

Still, I don't trust Rasmussen's numbers, I normally go with Gallup.

Edit: Gallup is at 48% approve, 44% dissaprove.

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Gallup is holding steady at 48% approve, 43% dissaprove (-1).  It seems to be just Rassmusen.

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Gallup has Obama at 47% (+1) approve to 45% (u) dissaprove.

Obama's numbers are lower than during the Tuscon bounce, but are still better than before the bounce.

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North Carolina's looking kind of odd on your map pbrower.

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North Carolina's looking kind of odd on your map pbrower.

     North Carolina has been acting oddly lately. It seems like the kind of state that could become a Democratic enclave in Republican country 10 years down the line.

Along with the rest of the "New South" (i.e. Virginia and North Carolina and perhaps Georgia long-term, but that's a stretch) and the West.

The Democratic coalition is shifting from an economically based "labor" base to a more progressive professional middle class support group.

Not a transition I'm sad to see happen.

I agree, I wouldn't be surprised to have North Carolina and Virginia etc. vote more for the Democrats than Wisconsin or Michigan in a decade or two.