Upper Left

Mitt Romney's support among Republicans is lower than President Obama's job approval rating among all Americans.

Labels: Approval, Mitt Romney, Polls, President Obama

Via Taegan Goddard…

…it's interesting to note that at this point in Ronald Reagan's first term, the unemployment rate was 10.4% and his approval rate was 37%.

In contrast, the unemployment rate today is 9.4% and President Obama's approval rate is either 53% or 54% according to two polls released today.

Labels: Approval, Polls, President Obama, Ronald Reagan, Unemployment

Obama holds the base. Post-election polling...

Democrats: 82% Approve 12% disapprove
Liberals: 79% approve 16% disapprove

Labels: Approval, Democrats, Liberals, Polls, President Obama, The Base

...for the Baraquitter from Ron Chusid...

Hey Sarah Palin, how is that winkey, stupidy thing working out for you?

Survey says not so good.

Labels: Approval, Good Question, Polls, Sarah Palin

Sorry about all those folks who thought they were voting for Dennis Kucinich last fall. Happily, it turns out there weren't all that many of them. Public Policy Polling, via Ron Chusid…

Our new poll suggests that liberal unhappiness with Barack Obama is still largely anecdotal and not very widespread. His approval rating with liberal Democrats is 95%, with only 3% disapproving of him.

Labels: Approval, Democrats, Liberals, Polls, President Obama

I wish more of their elders had as much sense. Via Political Wire...

A new national poll by Harvard's Institute of Politics finds 58% of America's 18-29 year-olds approve of President Obama's job performance generally but disapprove of his handling of specific issues including the economy (52% disapprove), health care (52% disapprove) and Afghanistan (55% disapprove).

I, too, "disapprove" of President Obama's handling of specific issues. I wish his economic program had started with a greater emphasis on job creation. I wish his health care program had started with a push for single payer. I wish the withdrawal from Afghanistan had started six months ago rather than eighteen months from now.

Best as I recall, though, there wasn't a candidate on the November ballot who offered any of those positions. At least this administration has actually noticed that there's an unemployment problem and is taking some steps to directly address it. At least there's some movement toward a more comprehensive and accessible health insurance system. At least there's some acknowledgement that wars have to end someday. That's all progress that, in general, I approve of.

Of course, there's a group of folks out there who disagree with the President on each of those issues because they think he's going too far in every instance. That's the major problem with "approve/disapprove" polling. It doesn't mean anything unless you know why.

At any rate, this is pretty encouraging news. I imagine that a poll of 68-79 year olds might produce a different result, but a lot of those folks are going to be somewhat less engaged a couple of years or so out than the youngsters. There's still reason for hope.

Labels: Afghanistan, Approval, Economy, Health Care, Polling, Youth

Oliver…

What people – especially on the right – fail to notice, regularly, is that a good portion of dissatisfaction with congress comes from many in the electorate believing it isn’t being progressive enough and not from some misplaced teabaggery.

OK, maybe it's more refuse to notice than fail, and I'm not sure the left isn't as guilty as the right, but it's still a point not made enough.

Labels: Approval, Democrats, Polls, Republicans

Via, once again, Mr. Yglesias (becoming known around Upper Left World Headquarters as The Chart Czar)...


Not too bad for a guy who, I hear, has taken on too much, in the wrong order, and alienated key blocs of his base while becoming over-exposed in the media. Bound to fail, I'm told.

Or maybe he knows something a bunch of us don't...

Labels: Approval, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Matt Yglesias, Polls, President Obama

Gallup...

Only Richard Nixon was explicitly less popular at the time of his exit than Bush is today.

Labels: Approval, George W. Bush, Polls, Richard Nixon

Via Blue Texan...

...the last three 2-term presidents were Clinton, Reagan and Eisenhower. Clinton left with a 66% approval rating, Reagan, 63% and Eisenhower, 59%.

Pretty popular fellas. The next one? Not so much...

Labels: Approval, Bill Clinton, Dwight Eisenhower, George W. Bush, Polls, Ronald Reagan

Via Darryl…

“An Obama job approval rating of 79 percent — that’s the sort of rating you see when the public rallies around a leader after a national disaster. To many Americans, the Bush administration was a national disaster.”

Bill Schneider, CNN senior political analyst

Sheesh. I appear to be becoming mainstream in my autumnal years.

Labels: Approval, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Polls, Quote of the Day

Ed Kilgore:

...I understand that Congress' steadily plummeting approval ratings this year have been a source of endless consolation to Republicans. But the idea that excessive liberal activism on the part of Democrats in Congress (the planted axiom of Kristol's argument) is a big reason for public discontent has significantly less evidence to support it than the dubious belief of some progressives that the failure to cut off war funding, block FISA, or impeach Bush, is the problem.

***

And there's the rub: Congress' abysmal approval rating are something of a statistical anomaly, produced by Democratic unhappiness with too little progress against Bush, Republicans unhappy with Democratic control, and many weak partisans and independents simply registering unhappiness with "Washington" and with the general direction of the country. With Democrats almost certain to increase their margins in both Houses, it's hard to imagine why the same voters determining that result would be excited about canceling its effect by voting for a presidential candidate promising to deadlock Congress even more than Bush has, or to move it back towards its pre-2006 direction.

What he said.

Labels: Approval, Congress, Polls, Popularity