Pollster takes a look at the decline in Barack Obama’s approval ratings since Inauguration Day and comes up with a few interesting charts.
First, there’s this chart showing the differences in the change in approval ratings through September 1st of the first year in office for every President since Eisenhower:
Based on this, it’s clear that the decline in Obama’s approval numbers is second only to the drop that Bill Clinton had during his first seven months in office, and within range of the drops that both George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter experienced over the same period.
The more important chart, though, is this one which shows approval ratings over the course of an entire term going back to FDR’s 3rd term:
What this indicates, of course, is that the first seven months in office don’t really tell us much about how a Presidency is going to turn out. Bill Clinton bounced back quite nicely from his initial drop in the polls, and Ronald Reagan saw his numbers decline even further as the recession hit in 1982. It’s unclear if Barack Obama has hit his nadir yet, but he will at some point and then the question will be how far he bounces back.
