72: Percentage of Americans who personally approved of the president, according to a Politico/GWU poll released in May, which showed his job approval numbers slacking while his personal popularity remains strong. Today, 52 percent disapprove of President Obama‘s actual job performance, according to the latest numbers from Gallup, as opposed to the 40 percent who say they approve of the job he’s doing.
So what does this mean for Obama’s reelection bid? A new piece crunching Obama’s numbers in the National Journal points out that personal popularity can actually bolster lousy job approval numbers, but it will only take the president so far. As one Republican pollster put it, Obama “is in danger … of becoming Jimmy Carter: Likeable, but unable to lead the country out of difficult times.”
