What is the "secret" to Obama's "popularity"?

United States
February 27, 2010 6:29am CST
He is prez at a time of high unemployment, logjams in Congress, crises all over the place (health care, education, energy) there are two military actions and the threat of more, huge budget deficits and ... well, there are many reasosns why he should be as popular as a skunk at a garden party. But he is doing pretty well you must admit in keeping popularity near 50%. Why is that? Your thoughts?
8 responses
@irisheyes (4370)
• United States
2 Mar 10
Actually, I think people recognize the effort he's putting forth and they are reluctant to blame congressional gridlock on yet another president. Is it 50% now? I thought I read a lot lower on here somewhere. When he first went in and was getting all those high approval ratings, I couldn't help thinking that he would be down to the Bush level of popularity in about a year so he's not doing too bad. The one thing that will cause him to continue to plunge is the economy. If that picks up he'll do better in the popularity poles but if it doesn't, he'll plummet. That's what sinks them all.
• Qatar
28 Feb 10
god knows.......but I don't think he is doing well. but now his popularity is on a downward path
@gadnynj (74)
• Bayonne, New Jersey
27 Feb 10
The man is working 24/7 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) any fool can see that. Those that have generated destructive opposition is based on hate, envy and stupitity. Those that follow these destructive fools and just that, more fools. Now about 30 percent of any group of people or nation is basically destructive fools making them a times very loud and mean and wicket, because they of their ways they strive on preying on others to optain that which they seek out; attention. They seek out attention because they suffer with a preverted highten level sense of self worth, and or higher level of intelligence then the people that surrounds them. In reality they suffer from a low self esteem, and clearly thinking like that means that the person actually suffers from mental illness. So, in actuality, our president actually rates higher in popularity; more like 70 percent of the population support the president, and 70% of the people like and appreciate the efforts of the president. Many in this 70% who's voices are not heard, is because either the person is overburden with life's calling duties, or are too busy achieving the set goals.
• United States
28 Feb 10
I think you will see his numbers continue to go down? Why? His lack of experience shows almost daily. Congress is logjammed...he has been uneffective in fixing it. YOu can't blame that on the republicans....there are not enough of htem to stop them...the democrats can not agree among themselves...too much in-fighting and as the "head" of the party he has not been able to reign it in. Also under his watch CEOs got bonuses with our dollars. Poeple are ticked off about that. Obama may have not written that bill..but he sure as heck signed it. Which makes him guilty too. Also there was all that money sent out to the banks...with no strings attached. They were "suppost" to use it to lend..but they used it to horde and buy up other banks. Well Obama and congress failed to safe guard our money and put in writting what the banks could and could not do with it. And once again...Obama signed it. It is stupid and completely perventable things like this that have hurt him the most. This congress and president have looked like the ametuer hour. Common sense things that should have been done...were not. I don't see it getting any better.
@ajaraine (74)
• India
28 Feb 10
Obama is smart person and smart person play it smart. His promises and speech is one in a million and that is one thing that really touches people
@hofferp (4734)
• United States
28 Feb 10
I don't think he's doing well, either. His popularity is on a downward path, and I don't see it getting any better. I believe he's going to be a one-time president and have a place in history like Carter.
@Taskr36 (13963)
• United States
27 Feb 10
I honestly don't think that he's doing that well at all. In fact, for this point in his term, I actually think he's doing very poorly especially when you consider that he entered office with extremely high approval ratings. If you look at Rasmussen you'll see he entered office at 65% and is currently at 43% with 43% who STRONGLY disapprove. Gallup had him entering office at 70% and shows him currently at 50% so no matter how you look at it he's down 20% from when he entered office and he dropped fast. His early popularity was based largely on the way the media pumped him up while tearing apart anyone who opposed him. Frankly, there was no way he could sustain the popularity they helped give him. One of his biggest problems was that the republican party didn't have a leader. He tried desperately to make Rush Limbaugh the leader so he'd have an easy target, but that failed miserably as only democrats bought it. http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll http://www.gallup.com/poll/113980/Gallup-Daily-Obama-Job-Approval.aspx
• United States
27 Feb 10
No secret -- high unemployment, logjams in Congress, crises all over the place, two military actions, a huge defecit, etc. are all the reasons he got elected in the first place. The American people are smart enough to recall that we're in precisely that mess because of Republican bungling and looting the treasury for the wealthy under Reagan, Bush, and Bush the Lesser. No one seriously expects Obama to solve in one year what Republicans have spent 30 breaking -- no matter how desperately Republicans wish that were the standard being applied. In fact, the only reason Obama isn't even more popular now is his insistence on giving Republicans every chance to be a part of the process forward after they've spent 30 years proving that this is exactly where they want us to be.