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Devastating drop in job approval numbers for Obama in new Gallup survey

By: Mark Tapscott
Editorial Page Editor
10/21/09 10:45 PM EDT

President Obama's push for health care reform during the third quarter of 2009 has seriously damaged his public standing, according to new data from the Gallup Daily tracking poll. His job approval rating dropped nine points from the second to the third quarter, from 62 percent to 53 percent.

The nine-point second-to-third quarter drop is the highest Gallup has ever measured for an incumbent president during his first year in office, and among the highest quarter-to-quarter drops measured for any president at any point:

"Obama's 9-point slide between quarters ranks as one of the steepest for a president at any point in his first year in office. The highest is Truman's 19-point drop between his third and fourth quarters, followed by a 15-point drop for Gerald Ford between his first and second quarters. The largest for an elected president in his first year is Bill Clinton's 11-point slide between his first and second quarters," Gallup said.

Gallup also noted that Obama's average job approval rating has plummeted to among the worst since the polling organization began measuring presidential popularity and job approval.

"In Obama's first quarter and second quarter, his job approval average compared favorably with those of prior presidents. But after the drop in his support during the last quarter, his average now ranks near the bottom for presidents at similar points in their presidencies. Only Clinton had a lower third-quarter average among elected presidents," Gallup said.

Even Gerald Ford averaged 39% during his third quarter in office, in 1975, which coincided with severe economic problems, continuing political fallout from Watergate and the pardon of disgraced former President Richard Nixon, and the election in November 1974 of the Watergate class in Congress.

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Reader Comments

All comments on this page are subject to our Terms of Use and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Examiner or its staff. Comment box is limited to 250 words.

Sees the Naked Sock Puppet Dictator

Oct 22, 2009

Barry Soetoro the troubled is a real and present danger to the Republic. There is but one hope: Conservative Congress MMX!

LadyChurchill

Oct 22, 2009

And this is gallup the numbers from Rasmussen which are of likely voters are even worse 47%. 30% strongly disapprove of what he is doing. This nitwit is leading us down a path to economic chaos and destruction.

Shanghaied

Oct 22, 2009

Well, the honeymoons over. Now I want a divorce.

depaz

Oct 22, 2009

Once the poll numbers started to drop, the Obama camp "doesn't pay attention to poll numbers". We all know what he does with those who disagree with him. We're going to become the United States of Chicago. And like he told a room full of Republicans not long after taking office who had the audacity to question something, "I won".

greg

Oct 22, 2009

All Presidents polls drop like this.

Mad Monica

Oct 22, 2009

Exactly. Numbers only matter to this president if he's winning. No amount of talking crap about FoxNews is gonna help this guy pull his can outta the fire. He's talked crap about the American people who put him in office for way too long.

colorado

Oct 22, 2009

Do we all remember how so many people (including Republicans/conservatives) went absolutely nuts when Rush Limbaugh said "I want the president to fail". But he is NOT failing. Nobama is doing everything he set out to do which is destroy America as we have known it. Sad to say but Nobama is a success and he hasn't been in for one year yet. How will we stand in Oct. 2012 if this horrible man is still in office? I don't understand how anyone with a working brain voted for this guy. He is NOT my president and never will be.

bobc

Oct 22, 2009

I call upon all business leaders, to stand up and do not allow our country to die! Do all you can to get jobs here, to start new factories..and we will help you anyway we can..

To turn our country around, it's going to be up to the people.

Cliff

Oct 22, 2009

He is the best dictator from Kenya Israeli money can buy.....

jimmy

Oct 22, 2009

He needs to go, NOW!

Oct 22, 2009

Obama is a criminal of the first order. Anyone who the establishment puts in will be. In December, he will officially sign away the United States to the UN in December in Coppenhagen....and with it he will burn our Constitution. Get ready to be slaves people, unless we fight to take our country back.

Atomic

Oct 22, 2009

It is not just his stand on health care that reduces his ratings, it is his total lack of trust. He is all about making himself look good in public and not the benefits to the American people.

Gerrard

Oct 22, 2009

This article doesn't say anything that actually links disapproval of the prez with health care reform. The headline might as well have said his lower standing is due to his shoe size. Or perhaps his FAILURE to achieve reform, rather than his "push" for it, is the culprit. Obviously (or perhaps not to the Examiner's editors) this is a major difference.

samgator

Oct 22, 2009

get out the ropes folks! first: vote them out second: hang a him and his minions from lamp posts like mussolini and his ilk

Jon Dough

Oct 22, 2009

Imagine what his poll numbers would be like if we had a fair,balanced and impartial media.

Brandon Johns

Oct 22, 2009

I think by and large a lot of people are just growing tired of this public option health care thing and the Democrats using the race card against Obama's opponents.

Robert Kolbe

Oct 23, 2009

==============

I really don't care if anybody likes him. He just needs to do his job and so far, it looks like he is doing just fine.

Oh -- that's right -- the corporate CEOs don't like him -- they might have to pay their taxes for a change.

jSpirit

Oct 23, 2009

Sooner this moron-destroyer-of-all-things-American-including-we-the-people goes the better. Send that one-quarter black boy back to Kenya. My goodness... I can't even believe his "approval" numbers are still that high, quite frankly. No one I talk to defends him any more and did you ever stop at a rest room in a truck stop? Let's just say our wonderful redneck truckers don't like this guy one bit and are also letting the world know. God bless 'em!

STEVE

Oct 23, 2009

Why should Obummer care about poll numbers? He's in charge until Jan 20, 2013. He'll continue to keep us circling the bowl until then aided by that Harpy Pelosi and Idiot Reid.

Obomba

Oct 23, 2009

Nickles, dimes, pennies = Da Change U Can Buleev in!

NixonClinton

Oct 23, 2009

Funny how "journalists" very often use the word "disgraced" when they describe Richard Nixon yet Bill Clinton rapes Jaunita Broaddrick and no hint of scandal is ever mentioned.

Oct 23, 2009

Welcome back, Jimmy Carter, welcome back.

kingoftheslidez

Oct 26, 2009

jspirit-You call the President of the United States a name like that. Why you disrespectful little wad of human sewage you ought to be ashamed of yourself. I think it's most revealing that you get your information off of bathroom walls-the toilet where you belong.I think yours is ideology shared by a majority of Rush/Fox/ Wash Ex "people" hate and ignorance

Obama-nation

Nov 5, 2009

I regret ever voting for Obama. He's racist for one. Just look at the programs and slogans he promotes: "Working moms go back to school (with photos of all black women)" and the most recent one was of Obama standing against a background that read, "Race to the top." These are not subtle shades of racism by any measure.

His policies are destroying this country, worse than Bush had. People call him a socialist, but he's really a communist.

He is a one-term prez--I will vote REPUBLICAN to get him OUT!

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Devastating drop in job approval numbers for Obama in new Gallup survey

By: Mark Tapscott
Editorial Page Editor
10/21/09 10:45 PM EDT