Obama More Unpopular than Bush

A reader suggests that people should know about this, given the (liberal) narrative that Bush was a very bad, and very unpopular, president:

Gallup not only offers weekly averages of the current president’s job-approval ratings (“Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president?”), but also offers a number of historical comparisons.  Here are a few that I think are especially of interest:

Obama currently (March 19th–25th): 46%

“Term average to date” (January 2009–present): 49%

Can We?

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The story of America in the twentieth century was the story of the growth of government.  It has accelerated and decelerated, and even retreated at times, but taken together, it looks almost inexorable—it grows and grows, slowly choking out freedom and economic activity. 

Salt in the Wound

Polls only mean so much.  How representative is the sample?  Even to the extent that a given opinion, as worded, is genuinely held by a certain fraction of the population, what exactly does that mean, and how deep does it go?  How transient is it?  Etc.

So, as with any poll, however carefully scientifically controlled, however carefully conducted, take these data with a grain of salt.

That said, I was interested to hear this week that President Obama is the “Most Polarizing President Ever”.