Obama's State Of The Union Polling Bump: One Point

President Barack Obama received a one-point bump in his approval ratings after his State of the Union address, according to a new Gallup poll.

In the latest poll, released Sunday, 48 percent of respondents approved of the job the president was doing, while 46 percent disapproved.

Obama's approval and disapproval ratings were both at 47 percent in an earlier poll, taken before Wednesday's State of the Union Address.

CBS reported earlier in the week that 83 percent of viewers had a positive reaction to the State of the Union address.

The slight uptick in Obama's numbers is not surprising, according to Pollster.com, a polling Web site that notes historically, "[t]he audiences for the State of the Union tend to be heavily tilted toward the president's existing supporters."

As CBS reported,

Most Democrats and independents who watched said the president shares their priorities, while most Republicans did not.

Gallup's own numbers show that when it comes to approval ratings, past presidents have generally not benefited tremendously from their State of the Union speeches. One notable exception was Bill Clinton, who received a 10-point improvement after his speech to Congress in 1998.

Comments

[cjk002]

02:34 PM on 02/02/2010

As of today:

Gallup: 51% (+4)

Rasmussen: 50% (+5)

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll

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

[SkyTalker]

07:03 PM on 02/01/2010

Polls are becoming passe in measuring the true standing of a president with voters. I can patiently wait for mid-term elections to give a reality to things 1,010 randomly selected people cannot. Polls are not reflective of today's voter diversity.

[ArtsyJane]

04:09 PM on 02/01/2010

His state of the union address was excellent and his GOP retreat Q'n'A was absolutely incredible. I was watching this on CSpan yesterday and was so proud that he is the President of the US! Never, ever, in my life have I felt proud of someone being the head of state. He is truly the first politician that inspires feelings of pride. Of course, I wasn't born back in the Kennedy or FDR days. The farthest back I remember is Reagan.

[Sigger]

04:29 PM on 02/01/2010

Ditto. Why independents didn't like what he had to say, and the manner in which he said it, is beyond me?

In sports vernacular, it was like a man playing against boys in the Q'n'A - not college boys, high school.

[Seattlelite]

01:54 PM on 02/01/2010

I'd like to see the poll after his visit to the GOP "retreat" last week.

[american2008]

03:19 PM on 02/01/2010

It wont change much because Repubs and many Independents are zombies and will not accept anything coming from Obama, even if it's 100% correct!

[cjk002]

02:30 PM on 02/02/2010

He has jumped from 47% before the SOTU and the Republican meeting to 51% today on Gallup. He's gone from 46% to 50% on Rasmussen.

I think this article was a little premature.

[rblaquinta]

12:45 PM on 02/01/2010

Most of the time I do not take any of the polls to heart, but after the little questions and answers between President and the Republicans...the pollls should have jump by 50 pts........in his favor now that was something to digest...hope he does it every month!!!!

[kemahcw]

10:52 AM on 02/01/2010

is it any wonder that President Obama's ratings would drop? after all the negativism, all the hatred, all the racism, after the newly declared party of no, after the Republicans worsening, snowballing economy he inherited, after the jobless rates which every economist would say would steadily increase until some kind of controls were put into place (we now can see some stabilazation) after the escalating of the war on terrorism, after the teabaggers, after the birthers, after Rush, McCain, Hannity, Palin, Steele, after the non support of some of his own democrats, after all the lies and distortions (some that have just been taken to task by President Obama in the lion's den)...who would ever think logically that his favorable ratings would increase?
if you take away all of the above, the lies, distortions, deciet and non support where would his numbers be?
Kemah.

[hippie chucker]

11:54 AM on 02/01/2010

Yeah, totally. If every president could take away his naysayers, he'd probably poll better.

Brilliant analysis.

[kemahcw]

12:20 PM on 02/01/2010

fact is, and there'sno denying that no president has been attacked as Obama has. he was even attacked for accepting the dog that Biden gave to him! people were saying that he should have gotten a dog from a shelter. just the racism alone is enough to devide the country. no other president has sufffered from racism coming from the republicans, the and teabaggers. remember the Obama cookies, the email with watermelons on the white house lawn, the nazi signs, the commie signs, the obama bucks??? I pointed out it was not just the attacks but it was the non support of even his own party.
I'm not brilliant and you don't seem to be either.
Kemah

[Seattlelite]

02:03 PM on 02/01/2010

Drop in poll numbers.....if he'd just go with the status quo instead tackling the real problems his poll numbers would be great!

[MacQ]

09:18 AM on 02/01/2010

SMACKDOWN

Some of the same posters who are cheering the president's "smackdown" of republicans are likely the same ones who frequently refer to how hard he has tried to "reach out" to them.
Hard to square that, other than it IS the same tone he has used for all that reaching out.

Don't get me wrong. I hope he continues his smackdown, and that he continues to shill for his party leadership to go back behind closed doors and craft ram-down bills and pay each other to vote for them. massachussetts will be repeated all over the country, and then we can begin to recover. He can cointinue smacking down a republican majority and that will be a restoration of balance.

[bbrecht]

02:25 PM on 02/01/2010

A restoration of balance will require eight years of radical presidency-- just to fix what was broken by that GWB....

[exclintonsupporter]

08:06 AM on 02/01/2010

I admire this President so much. A lot of what he is doing is not popular...wont' bring his poll numbers up...he knows that...but he still believes that what he is doing is BEST for this country. Unfortunately, people just want to continue to criticize without trying to work with him. When he was campaigning, he ran on the premise that he wanted to reform health care...that was no secret...he also said that jobs were going to be a priority..but first he had to stablize the country so that we could stop loosing jobs...jobs were being lost at a rate of 650 thousand per month when he walked in the door...now that is about 60 to 85 thousand per month...still bad...but not as bad as it was last year. Give the guy some crediit. Additionally...not goverment can not reach into it's magic bag and create jobs...companies create jobs. People complain about government spending...but here's a news flash...companies will not start hiring again...jobs will not be created...unless GOVERNMENT gives some incentives for them to do so...and that means that they will have to spend money...no spending...no jobs!!1

[MacQ]

09:20 AM on 02/01/2010

The biggest government incentive to hiring by private companies would be to stop threatening to tax them with every proposal.
Just get out of the way.
The shortest recession in our history was when the president...did nothing.
The longest was when the president followed the very policies currently being pursued.

[Woodley56]

12:18 PM on 02/01/2010

Just get out of the way? Really?

Just get out of the way got us into this mess. It caused the housing bubble and the banking crisis. Just get out of the way caused Enron and WorldCom. Just get out of the way caused rolling blackouts in California.

It's the government's job to regulate. The companies certainly aren't going to regulate themselves. Laissez faire economics are a disaster, and you want to continue on that course? Brilliant.

[pointyheadprodigy]

07:59 AM on 02/01/2010

A point? Really? A whole point? Who's opinion improved after that dribble? I mean watching him gig the SCOTUS was entertaining and all but taken with the disrespect he showed his base and the pandering to the opposition it was a lose/lose kind of a night. Maybe I was just way too sober.

[simplify]

07:48 AM on 02/01/2010

HP sure knows how to write headlines as an invitation to the tro l l s

[Beatriz09]

09:17 AM on 02/01/2010

x 2

[simplify]

07:46 AM on 02/01/2010

Whats his rating after the a s s whopping he gave the GOP?.

[EqualMeansEqual]

03:50 PM on 02/01/2010

That might have had 1/100 the ratings that the State of the Union did.
Its not going to make a difference one way or another.

and 1% is statistically irrelevant, that is is does not show any actual upswing that could not be explained by randomness.

[busman]

06:01 AM on 02/01/2010

After his first year with no REAL change, his speeches now sound hollow and amount to mere pandering. MA voters made that clear, but Obama and his team still seem tone deaf. Hope they didn't pay that Plouffe guy too much.

[21AAsalem]

06:19 AM on 02/01/2010

Hey are you knocking the tone deaf. Aren't they protected under the ADA? :-). Well it's 3 am west coast and I just can't wait to see what the polls say in 8 hours.

[rgilley]

07:31 AM on 02/01/2010

I think Obama's debate with the republican caucus will boost his polls 2 points.
It was a debate of 140 to 1 and the 1 won simply by being straight forward and honest. Something republicans just can't seem to do.

[themodernleader]

05:04 AM on 02/01/2010

Americans have finally awakened to find themselves led towards servitude and enslavement. Great natiions destroy themselves from within.

[PhilipTaylor]

05:10 AM on 02/01/2010

RULE by a Corrupted Financial Aristocracy that owns our Government!

If we can not toss them out we will go over the CLIFF!

[rgilley]

07:37 AM on 02/01/2010

The supreme court has made the finacial aristocracy a certainty to the nth degree. Corporations can now choose, through thier massive financial contributions, who will be elected to every office in the US.

Our country as we knew it died with one supreme court decision that conservative corporate republicans have been setting up for a generation.

The US. will be about servitude within a year if we refuse to stand up against this blatant conservative republican conspiracy.

[Opus Loki]

06:03 AM on 02/01/2010

No great nation has ever self destructed without some outside enfluence, even Rome because I see that this is where you were trying to make your comparison. Read "Rise and Fall of The Roman Empire" from cover to cover and you may not be so free with your paralels.

[TheSystemWorks]

05:02 AM on 02/01/2010

I thought he was a master politician. Now we're seeing he is a radical ideologue. Where is the pivot??!

[21AAsalem]

05:49 AM on 02/01/2010

System, Did you watch the unfiltered, uncensured, transparent coverage that was on a channel other than the faux news? Where Obama refutes your every talking point? Never mind, your mind is closed.

[BMcCue7]

01:06 PM on 02/01/2010

No, you're not "seeing" that he is a radical ideologue. because he clearly isn't one.

How do you "see" something that isn't there?

[beyondthepale9779]

03:49 AM on 02/01/2010

But!!! , Bt! Chris Matthews had an epiphany!!!!! DOes that mean nothing to the polling gods??!