President Barack Obama’s approval ratings during his second year in office were the most partisan and polarized they’ve ever been at two years into a presidency, with a nearly 70 percentage point gap between how Republicans and Democrats evaluated his performance.
Obama’s approval among Republicans averaged just 13 percent, while Democrats’ approval of Obama’s second year averaged 81 percent.
The 68-point differential is the fourth-largest on record, behind years four, five and six of George W. Bush’s presidency, when the partisan gap was between 70 and 76 points. Gallup’s data reaches back to 1954-1955, Dwight D. Eisenhower’s second year in office.
Before Obama, only Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton saw gaps of more than 50 percentage points between Republicans’ and Democrats’ approval during their second years in office. Between January 1982 and January 1983, Reagan’s approval averaged 79 percent among Republicans and 23 percent among Democrats – a 56 percentage point difference. Clinton’s approval averaged 19 percent among Republicans and 73 percent among Democrats between January 1994 and January 1995, a 54-point margin.
Just as a large partisan divide didn’t stop Reagan and Clinton from winning second terms, small gaps between Democrats’ and Republicans’ approval of a president haven’t guaranteed reelection.
The smallest partisan gap during a president’s second year came for Jimmy Carter, when his approval was 28 percent among Republicans and 57 percent among Democrats – a 29-point difference.
Gallup’s analysis of Obama’s second year is based on its daily tracking polls conducted between Jan. 20, 2010, and Jan. 19, 2011. It’s based on a random sample of 178,864 adults, and the error margin is plus or minus 1 percentage point.
© 2011 Capitol News
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