Introduction by Mike Griffith, Staff Writer
In spite of historically favorable coverage from most of the news media, President Barack Obama’s approval rating at the 100-day mark of his presidency is actually lower than Jimmy Carter’s and Richard Nixon’s approval ratings at the same point in their presidencies. Moreover, according to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, the partisan gap in Obama’s job approval rating is the worst for any president in the last four decades.
The Rasmussen and Marist polls put Obama’s job approval rating at 55% to 56%. The RealClearPolitics national average of polls done by seven major news organizations puts Obama’s approval rating at 62%. At the 100-day mark in their presidencies, Jimmy Carter had a 72% approval rating and Richard Nixon had a 65% approval rating.
As for the partisan gap in job approval, Carter’s was only 25%; Nixon’s was 29%; Bush Sr.’s was 38%, Clinton’s was 45%; Reagan’s was 46%; Bush Jr.’s was 51%. However, the partisan gap in Obama’s approval rating is a recod-setting 61%. (See comparison table here.)
Partisan Gap in Obama Job Approval Widest in Modern Era
Pew Research Center
For all of his hopes about bipartisanship, Barack Obama has the most polarized early job approval ratings of any president in the past four decades. The 61-point partisan gap in opinions about Obama’s job performance is the result of a combination of high Democratic ratings for the president — 88% job approval among Democrats — and relatively low approval ratings among Republicans (27%).
By comparison, there was a somewhat smaller 51-point partisan gap in views of George W. Bush’s job performance in April 2001, a few months into his first term. At that time, Republican enthusiasm for Bush was comparable to how Democrats feel about Obama today, but there was substantially less criticism from members of the opposition party. Among Democrats, 36% approved of Bush’s job performance in April 2001; that compares with a 27% job approval rating for Obama among Republicans today.
The partisan gap in Bill Clinton’s early days was also substantially smaller than what Obama faces, largely because Democrats were less enthusiastic about Clinton. In early April 1993, 71% of Democrats approved of Clinton’s job performance, which is 17 points lower than Obama’s current job approval among Democrats. Republican ratings of Clinton at that point (26%) are comparable to their current ratings of Obama today (27%).
The growing partisan divide in presidential approval ratings is part of a long-term trend. Going back in time, partisanship was far less evident in the early job approval ratings for both Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon. In fact, a majority of Republicans (56%) approved of Carter’s job performance in late March 1977, and a majority of Democrats (55%) approved of Nixon’s performance at a comparable point in his first term.
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