Popularity Contests
Peter Wehner, writing at NRO, points out an interesting tidbit of data. Obama is actually less popular at this point in his presidency than George W. Bush was at a comparable stage.
Here’s an interesting data point comparison: Barack Obama’s approval rating in the Gallup Poll today is 61 percent, with 28 percent disapproving (the Real Clear Politics aggregate of polls has his overall job approval rating at 59.8 percent). A March 5-7, 2001 Gallup poll found President Bush’s job approval at 63 percent as well, with only 22 percent disapproving. So George W. Bush, at a comparable time in his presidency, was in marginally better shape than Barack Obama is right now, at least based on the Gallup Poll survey.
Not that these types of popularity contest polls mean a lot this early on in any President’s tenure. But it is an interesting bit of information. The press is spinning – hard – about how popular Obama is. This casts their spin in another light.
I wonder what Carter’s numbers looked like at this stage.
By Straight8, March 6, 2009 @ 7:04 am
We have to remember at this juncture in President Bush’s first term, the media hadn’t yet ramped up it’s 24/7 hate campaign. With the explosive growth of alternative media,( thus far uncontrolled by liberal factions) the truth is being offered to millions more people. And in President Obama’s case, ‘it aint what we bargained for.