In the latest Gallup tracking poll on the public approval of President Obama's job performance, his approval numbers have ticked up slightly to 62% approval vs. 31% disapproval. These are improved public approval numbers than the low of 57% he had some days ago in the wake of news about the GM auto bailout which was controversial with many Americans.
Despite some serious new national unemployment news, such as the bad news that sent stocks down more than 200 points, yesterday, President Obama is proving himself to be a very popular president who inspires confidence and trust.
While it appears that the economy is struggling, and bad news abounds, despite serious actions by the Obama Administration to stabilize things that seem to be having only a minimal effect so far, the public seems to still have deep trust in the president and feel that he cares about them. Scenes such as the one where he comforts a woman who has a recently discovered tumor and other acts of kindness, prove he is far more than just a stiff intellectual, but a very decent man filled with much compassion for others. All of this translates into broad public appeal and support, despite the fact that many of his policies remain controversial or that the economy remains stalled with very serious problems.
Some areas where the Obama Administration has seen great early success is in military efforts in both Pakistan and Afghanistan where the Taliban and Al Qaeda have suffered serious military losses in past few weeks, and a huge new offensive by 4,000 Marines in Afghanistan is having great success. At home, while the bailout plans to rescue both GM and Chrysler remain very controversial, both companies seem to have survived the recession thanks to the bailout plans, and remain in business, providing many jobs. Stimulus Bill spending is starting a large number of construction and highway projects around the nation.
In the long run, it will certainly be results that dictate whether the Democrats do well in the 2010 midterm elections or whether President Obama is re-elected. And performance on the stubborn economy remains a very difficult issue for the Obama White House to deal with. And likely, performance on the economy may remain as the number issue deciding on the ultimate success or failure of the Democrats and President Obama.
Note: Wizbang Blue is now closed and our authors have moved on. Paul Hooson can now be found at Wizbang Pop!. Please come see him there!
Comments (6)
Hmmmm, and Rasmussen has it at 53-46, with it trending downward. Not cherry picking here are we Paul?
1. Posted by engineer | July 3, 2009 3:16 PM
Posted on July 3, 2009 15:16
Hello Eric. I have some university background in statistics education, and I'm certainly aware of the huge poll variance between Gallup and Rasmussen and I'm intending to do a future piece on why polls vary so much between firms once I study their polling methods.
While Rasmussen seems to be very accurate predicting final figures such as an election outcome, their polling seems a little more slanted towards conservatives, whereas the Gallup polling seems a little bit off in the other direction for some reason. That's why I think that Real Politics offers something called a "poll of polls" to consider any bias. Yet, it just be polling methods or demographics that account for such variations. I have to really study the methods to look for why a bias seems to exist.
At any rate, my post only refers to the Gallup organization poll, which did show an uptick for some reason, so I offered some possible reasons for this uptick.
2. Posted by Paul Hooson | July 3, 2009 3:28 PM
Posted on July 3, 2009 15:28
Just incase anyone's interested in links, here's the Bir R results:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll
3. Posted by epador | July 3, 2009 4:10 PM
Posted on July 3, 2009 16:10
Finally, someone on the blue side is waking up to reality. None of the ideology themes so prominent on these pages will mean anything in 2010 or 2012 unless Democrats can do three things. Fix the economy, prevent another 9/11 magnitude attack on the U.S., and stay out of a war with Iran and/or North Korea. A failure in any one of those three areas and Democrats will swap places with Republicans.
4. Posted by Mac Lorry | July 3, 2009 7:44 PM
Posted on July 3, 2009 19:44
Paul, you have a gift for understatement: "While it appears that the economy is struggling(!), and bad news abounds(!), despite serious actions (!) by the Obama Administration to stabilize things that seem to be having only a minimal effect (!) so far, the public seems to still have deep trust in the president and feel that he cares about them." When you talk about "deep trust", I believe you suddenly veer towards overstatement! Personally, I don't give a rat's ass if my president cares for me. I want a president who knows what he's doing - including knowing what the Constitution allows and what it disallows - and who doesn't run amok writing check after check we don't have funds to cover because everything is an emergency and we MUST ACT NOW!!!
5. Posted by Steve | July 3, 2009 10:33 PM
Posted on July 3, 2009 22:33
Paul,
You do know this is the holiday weekend which is precisely WHY Rasmussen is responsibly not compiling data on approval during this time.
Polling duing a holiday weekend is like trying to collect a rain sample in a hurricane. It doesn't work.
I'd wait for a consistant movement from all similiar type polls for a period of 3-4 days AFTER the holiday weekend before making any pronouncements....especially with Gallup which has a recent and notorious history for being a poll with a high amount of daily variance.
-Polaris
6. Posted by Polaris | July 3, 2009 11:50 PM
Posted on July 3, 2009 23:50