Obama enjoys highest approval in 20 years

[oldiebutgoodie]

Obama enjoys highest approval in 20 years: poll

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US President Barack Obama, who is approaching his first 100 days in office, is enjoying the best presidential job approval rating at this point in 20 years, a new opinion survey showed.

The poll, by ABC News and The Washington Post, indicated 69 percent of Americans approve of the job he is doing, which is the highest evaluation in about two decades.

But the president faces a partisan divide. While 93 percent of Democrats approve of his activities, only 36 percent of Republicans do so, the poll showed.

Fifty-four percent say Obama's doing a better job than they expected, far above former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton at their 100-day mark.

They got a 39-percent and 35-percent better-than-expected rating, respectively.

Sixty-three percent say Obama has accomplished a great deal or good amount in his first three months, according to the survey. Just 37 percent said that about Clinton.

And six in 10 Americans say Obama is keeping most of his main campaign promises, far surpassing Clinton, who had 42 percent on that score.

If before Obama's inauguration only 19 percent said the country was on the right track, now 50 percent say so, the poll showed.

The poll was conducted April 21-24 among a random national sample of 1,072 adults. It has a margin of error of plus or minus three points.

LINK


Not to take anything away from our President's "achievement" in having such high poll ratings but I do think at least a tiny bit of it is accounted for by the "Whew! So the sky hasn't fallen yet!" thing or anyway, I think people want so badly to feel some sense of hope that they almost have to believe the President is doing a good job at this point. People need hope. President Obama represents hope to them.

I also highlighted an interesting sentence about how there has been such a drastic change in the precentage of people who believe the country is on the right track. I wish the poll or the article published the reasons why people think that.

[Edward]

He has not accomplished anything yet..

He is like a used cars salesman.. 
 So far ALL He has done is TALK and convince ignorant people WHY it is OK that America is going to cost US more Money. He has taken huge loans from countries like China and he has left ALL of Us Vulnerable and responsible for his Foolish Ideas.
He calls himself Gifted. So does every Con Man.. 
jmho

[Slogger]

Given a little time, I think we'll see that this is a "flash in the pan."  It will fizzle and we'll be left with the results--which may be a disaster.

Obama will close Gitmo, and distribute detainees.  If they had no concrete reason to keep some of the detainees, why were they held beyond the time others were released?

The top terrorists will be tried in civil courts, with all the rights and privileges of American citizens?  OK!  Try each one of them more than 3,000 times.

The glow will go out and we'll be left to suffer the consequences.

Check back in another 20 years.  I don't anticipate liking the results of the actions going on.

[SteveDinMD]

According to Dick Morris in a televised interview several days ago, trustworthy polls consistently placed Obama's approval over his first 100 days at 53%, down 13 percentage points from inauguration day.  This represents the LOWEST level of public approval achieved by any President at this point in his first term since such polls were first taken over 50 years ago.  Personally, I trust Dick Morris' results far more than any made-to-order nonsense fabricated by ABC News and the Washington Post. 

[oldiebutgoodie]

  Personally, I trust Dick Morris' results far more than any made-to-order nonsense fabricated by ABC News and the Washington Post. 

Yeah, sucking hookers' toes probably gave Dickie a whole new insight into politics. LOL.
 

[oldiebutgoodie]

[SteveDinMD]

  Personally, I trust Dick Morris' results far more than any made-to-order nonsense fabricated by ABC News and the Washington Post. 

Yeah, sucking hookers' toes probably gave Dickie a whole new insight into politics. LOL.
 

... at least enough insight to get Bill "Hide the Cigar" Clinton elected President. 

[oldiebutgoodie]

  Personally, I trust Dick Morris' results far more than any made-to-order nonsense fabricated by ABC News and the Washington Post. 

Yeah, sucking hookers' toes probably gave Dickie a whole new insight into politics. LOL.
 

... at least enough insight to get Bill "Hide the Cigar" Clinton elected President. 

  Those two shoulda ended up as bestest of buddies, don'tcha think? They seem to have "certain things" in common. Every time I see Bill Clinton he seems to be smirking and I can't help thinking about cigars and blue dresses.

[oldiebutgoodie]

Most give Obama thumbs up on first 100 days, polls say

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As President Obama marks his 100th day in office, most recent national polls indicate that more than six in 10 Americans approve of the job he's doing as president.

According to a CNN poll of polls compiled Wednesday, 63 percent said they approve of how Obama is handling his duties. Twenty-nine percent disapprove. The rating is down 3 percentage points from CNN's previous poll of polls, which was compiled Sunday.

The president's approval rating stood at 64 percent in a CNN poll of polls in January shortly after his inauguration.

"The number of Americans who think Obama has the right personal qualities to be president has gone up since the campaign last fall," said Keating Holland, CNN's polling director. "That wasn't true for George W. Bush eight years ago, and it may be one reason why Obama's approval rating is still in the 60s."

How does Obama compare with his predecessors around the first 100-days mark?

Bush stood at 62 percent in a CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll in April 2001; Bill Clinton at 55 percent in a CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll in April 1993; George H.W. Bush at 58 percent in a Gallup Poll from April 1989; and Ronald Reagan at 67 percent in a Gallup Poll in April 1981.

LINK

[SteveDinMD]

  Personally, I trust Dick Morris' results far more than any made-to-order nonsense fabricated by ABC News and the Washington Post. 

Yeah, sucking hookers' toes probably gave Dickie a whole new insight into politics. LOL.
 

... at least enough insight to get Bill "Hide the Cigar" Clinton elected President. 

  Those two shoulda ended up as bestest of buddies, don'tcha think? They seem to have "certain things" in common. Every time I see Bill Clinton he seems to be smirking and I can't help thinking about cigars and blue dresses.

They would seem, in a way, to have been made for one another -- like bookends.  One was obsessed with acts of misogyny, the other with being the object of misandry. 

[oldiebutgoodie]

100 days in, Obama is strong; will it last?

In the right-thinking echo chamber of Fox News, each of his first 100 days have inspired at least that many denunciations of President Barack Obama.

But a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll shows a president as yet unmarked by his bloviating critics.

Sixty-nine percent were satisfied with Obama's first 100 days; 68 percent viewed him favorably as a person; and 73 percent agreed that Obama is honest and trustworthy. Sixty-two percent approved of the job he's doing, with just 21 percent giving a thumbs down.

Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, Newt Gingrich and Karl Rove -- Take notice! The ditto-heads may be turning you on, but the American people are tuning you out.

While timid politicians tiptoe in Olympia -- and Gov. Gregoire sends out tortured defenses of the Legislature's performance -- the president in Washington, D.C., is taking strides.

At the University of Delaware last week, Steve Schmidt, who managed John McCain's presidential campaign last fall, delivered the best-yet overview of why Obama is airborne and his opposition mired in political mud.

Of Obama's campaign, drawing on a 40-year-old odyssey, he said, "This was, in my view, the unfinished Bobby Kennedy campaign -- the idealism, the passion, the inspiration it gave to people, it was organic, it was real and it wasn't manufactured at a tactical level in the campaign."

The latest ABC News/Washington Post poll found that just 21 percent of Americans consider themselves Republicans. In exit polls last November, GOP identification stood at 32 percent.

Sen. Arlen Specter, who crossed the floor Tuesday to become a Democrat, noted that 200,000 fellow Pennsylvania Republicans reregistered as Democrats in 2008. As their leader, he is now following them.

"As a matter of reality," said Schmidt, "in the first 100 days, (the Republican Party) has done nothing to improve its political position with regards to the fact that it has become a shrinking party."So, are we better off with Obama? The economic doldrums, our worst since the Great Depression, continue -- even in America's hitherto-booming "Left Coast."

Still, surveys show a dramatic uptick in the number of Americans who feel their country is back on the "right track". Morale is a key factor in emerging from economic morass.

"Why are we in this economic crisis? It is because we perceive we are in an economic crisis," Dr. Robert Shiller, the Yale economist and author of "Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy," told a Seattle Pacific University breakfast this week.

An economic crisis can cause "permanent damage," Shiller warned, adding: "What's important is that the president avoid anything that causes long-term damage to our confidence."

Obama is not heeding the old medical admonition, "First, do no harm." He has set out a bold agenda to reverse the deregulation that has prevailed since Ronald Reagan's presidency and resume an activist government. The president's reforms range from renewed oversight of Wall Street and financial markets o overhaul of health care to retooling an American automobile industry addicted to gas guzzling SUV's.

Is Obama overreaching? Is his agenda overambitious? Americans have a history of responding to those who raise the cry of "big government."

Every now and then, though -- infrequently since Americans easily get distracted -- the curtain gets pulled aside and the lights are beamed down. The costs of greed, neglected national tasks, and a culture gone wild are there for all to see.

The mood of the moment favors activism: By a 52-28 margin, the Fox News poll found that the American public believes that Obama's policies have helped rather than hurt the economy.

Take health care reform! Sixteen years ago, the Clinton administration faced furious resistance from the private sector. A debacle resulted, the product of incoming fire and self-inflicted wounds.

"Industry now wants it; labor wants it; 50 million uninsured Americans want it: The icing on the case is the 500,000 people who lose their jobs every months -- We didn't have that in '93 . . . It is driving the anxiety in this society," said Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., who met with Obama on Tuesday morning.

LINK

[SteveDinMD]

100 days in, Obama is strong; will it last?

 Take health care reform! Sixteen years ago, the Clinton administration faced furious resistance from the private sector. A debacle resulted, the product of incoming fire and self-inflicted wounds.

"Industry now wants it; labor wants it; 50 million uninsured Americans want it: The icing on the case is the 500,000 people who lose their jobs every months -- We didn't have that in '93 . . . It is driving the anxiety in this society," said Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., who met with Obama on Tuesday morning.

LINK

Socialized medicine died in 1993/94 because it was a bad idea and it deserved to die.  Never mind that the government lacks any Constitutional authority to undertake such a program.  It's a bad idea from the standpoint of quality and affordability alone.  I know; I lived with Canadian socialized medicine for four years and saw it first hand:  months- and years-long waiting lines for life-saving care; unavailability of life-saving medications; filthy, overcrowded hospitals lacking equipment considered routine in the U.S.  It is a disaster there (and everywhere else) and it will be a disaster here.  It took people a while to comprehend this back during the Clinton Administration, but they eventually learned the truth and threw the Democrats out of office in a tsunami of electoral indignation.  Such will be the case again, the only thing in question being how much damage Obama and his socialist cronies will inflict on the country in the meantime. 

Socialism is the real issue of our time, despite the Leftist media distractions.  It is absolutely the greatest evil ever conceived by the mind of man.  So powerful is it that it's responsible for more deaths than all other unnatural causes combined, and our country is now dangerously close to being thoroughly in its grip.  Like all great evil it is seductive to those motivated by other than noble intentions, in this case greed.  It is the natural political philosophy for those who desire to steal from their neighbors -- or who would vote for those who will do so on their behalf.  If one is truly known by the company one keeps, those politicians who have through history championed the cause of Socialism reveal its inherent "quality":  Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot, to name just a few.  By contrast, our Founding Fathers and the Framers of the Constitution utterly rejected this philosophy, and they created a system of government antithetical to it, rooted in individual liberty, in contrast to collective "rights" and the omnipotence of the state.  Obama, though, stands solidly with history's tyrants.  For all his phony rhetoric and the halo of propaganda that's been woven around him, he appeals to the absolute worst in human nature, and nothing good can ever come of it.  I therefore reject him and everything he stands for.  Long live the Constitution!

[oldiebutgoodie]

Well, so far, it would seem that America stands with our President in pretty impressive numbers. Whether that lasts remains to be seen.

[SteveDinMD]

Well, so far, it would seem that America stands with our President in pretty impressive numbers. Whether that lasts remains to be seen.

You might tend to agree that simple popularity counts for very little in the grand scheme of things.  After all, Hitler was popular in his day, too -- far more so than Obama, in fact. 

[nonesuche]

Well, so far, it would seem that America stands with our President in pretty impressive numbers. Whether that lasts remains to be seen.

You might tend to agree that simple popularity counts for very little in the grand scheme of things.  After all, Hitler was popular in his day, too -- far more so than Obama, in fact. 

Well said Steve, even Obama himself admits his "gift" of charisma has taken him a long way. I can't say I'm a fan of Dick Morris' personal proclivities but if you truly listen to him dissect the polls and shine some light on the fine print of some of these expenditures and policy changes, he knows his stuff. I don't approve of hookers but then I think plenty of democrats if not more, have partaken.

We as voters have to start 'thinking' and researching on our own, so many seem perfectly content to swallow whole the propaganda for positives, and never question it.

People also seem to forget how Michelle was muzzled during the campaign due to her propensity toward a very quick temper at times. Obama wouldn't dare step out on her, he may well truly love and only want her also, I'm not saying he is not. But only a fool would cross her, she's not Hillary in any sense of the word.

Michelle also lost me completely recently with her $500 sneakers at the food bank event, I used to be on the board of a food bank and I cannot imagine what she was thinking, fashion never rules to that extent. She's toast to me now for if we're to be sensitive to the pain and hurt of rascism (which I completely agree we should be), then particularly in this economy we should all be sensitive to the pain and hurt of poverty.

Mitch Romney has the foresight to see the cracks in the foundation of this new administration and held the first-ever republican town hall discussion this week and although I am not a registered republican, if one is held near me then I would want to attend it. Our futures and our children's futures have been fully mortgaged to China by Obama, the reality of that will begin to sink in along with Pelosi and friends determination to force us into socialism despite the wishes of the voters and 'thinking voters' specifically. I am angry enough regarding that to march on Washington !!

[oldiebutgoodie]

Obama gets high marks in polls
Nearly two-thirds approve of the job the president is doing, and seven in 10 say they like Obama, the man.
5:41 AM PDT, April 23, 2009

Most say they approve of the president's overall handling of the economy, while the effects of his policies remain uncertain.

Obama's job approval as president stands at 63% in a poll released this morning by the Washington-based Pew Research Center – with just 26% saying they disapprove of the way he is handling his job.

The president draws a similar rating, 64%, in a new poll conducted by the Associated Press and GfK Roper Public Affairs and Media. That survey also finds, for the first time in five years, more Americans saying the nation is headed in the right direction than those who say it is not.

The president's job approval also stands at 64% in the latest Gallup Poll daily tracking survey.

In a reversal of the way that voters traditionally view leaders of the two major political parties, the Democratic president draws better ratings in the Pew survey for his handling of foreign policy and terrorism than for his handling of domestic issues, such as health care, taxes or the budget deficit.

Nevertheless, 60% of those surveyed by Pew say they approve of Obama's overall handling of the economy.

First Lady Michelle Obama is having a honeymoon of her own with the public, with 76% of those surveyed voicing a favorable view of her – up from 62% in January, when the Obamas moved into the White House.

This is particularly true among Republican women, whose opinion of the first lady has grown by 21 points since January, to 67% approval in the newest survey. Among Republicans in general, the first lady holds the approval of 60%.

[...]

 Although 60% approve of Obama's overall handling of the economy, Pew found, most also say that it is too early to tell whether the president's economic policies have had an effect. Just 26% said his policies have made conditions better.

Most support the extent of the agenda that Obama is tackling early in his presidency, with 56% saying he is handling things right and 34% say he is taking on too much.

MORE...

I highlighted the parts I found especially interesting.