Obama Poll Numbers

Bush's numbers and Obama's have been almost exactly tracking each other for the past three months. Bush had a 48.6 approval rating at this point, and a 46.9 percent disapproval rating. Both are within one point of where Obama now stands.

President Obama had a fairly flat month in the polls. His approval rating slipped back half a point, and his disapproval rating stayed unchanged from last month. While his approval stayed above his disapproval for the month, the gap between the two is smaller than it's ever been.

President Barack Obama's job approval numbers are back "above water" (where his approval rate is higher than his disapproval number), continuing an impressive rise in the polls, which began in November of last year.

While the overall trend is indeed extremely positive for Obama at this point, he's still got a long way to go to retain his job this fall.

This month Obama poll watchers got some good news, and some bad news. This was capped off by the Washington punditocracy making a stupid comparison between polling for Obama and Carter.

Today's NYT news analysis by Jeff Zeleny offers a classic example of how journalists attribute political success to tactical strategies.

For August, Obama averaged 43.8 percent job approval and 50.7 percent disapproval. Among other records he set this month, this is the widest "underwater" gap he's ever posted, with a spread of 6.9 percent.

Tough numbers. An upside-down job rating going into an election is difficult for incumbents to overcome. Stock market convulsions fuel unease. While the last set of job numbers showed increasing private-sector jobs, pessimism is high.

Why are we taking polls as to how whites will vote a year and a half before a presidential election? Why is a voterʼs skin color even important?

[Program Note: Last month, we ran this column four days before the end of May, due to travel plans. We promised we'd update the preliminary numbers i...

"What a difference a death makes." President Obama announced at the very beginning of the month that Osama bin Laden was dead, and his poll numbers reacted almost immediately.

April was a pretty miserable month for Barack Obama, mostly due to the high price of gasoline at the pump. But May is already shaping up to be one of Obama's best months ever, for one very obvious reason.

While catastrophic world events dominated the news for most of the month, Obama's approval rating was being hit with a creeping domestic problem -- the rising price of gasoline.

In terms of shifts in public opinion, January and February were the best two months President Obama has yet had during his entire presidency.

WASHINGTON -- A poll released Monday provides more evidence that Republicans would hamper their chances in the 2012 presidential election were they to...

Even some of Sarah Palin's supporters might concede she is a polarizing figure. But she gets some stiff competition on that score from President Obama...

When taken month-to-month, January, 2011, was Obama's best month of his entire presidency. Not only did he finally get his bump -- but it was a truly significant bump.

WASHINGTON -- Did President Obama get a bump in the polls after the successes of the congressional lame-duck session? While only a handful of pollster...

Obama once again charted an unbelievably stable month in terms of approval ratings. The mildly good news was in his disapproval rating, which dropped significantly over the course of December.

Obama just had his most stable month ever in the public opinion polls, capping off a remarkable year of polling stability. Were you to just read the headlines or listen to the soundbites, you may have a different impression.

Obama's approval rating ended the month on somewhat of an upswing, at 46.1 percent.Obama's approval rating stayed remarkably steady all month long.

Last month I rashly wrote that since Obama was starting the month on an upswing, he had a good chance of posting largish gains in September. This didn't happen.

Augusts haven't been very kind to Obama. Two years ago, August was "Reverend Wright" month. Last year, August was "death panel" month. By that measure, at least, this past August wasn't actually all that bad.

July had some political successes for Obama, but the public once again didn't give him any credit for passing Wall Street reform, or any of the other achievements Obama chalked up.

As President Obama contemplates his recent poor poll numbers, he may want to recall that losing the approval of the people seems the norm, not the exception, for presidents.