Presidential Approval ratings..what it means

Approval ratings are very difficult to maintain especially if one starts out fairly high. It's only down from there, lol. That's a problem Obama will face as well. The American public is very fickle in who they adore and approve of at any given time. Just look at Hollywood. Somebody is a star for a couple of years and then the attention turns to the fresh new blood on the scene. The same applies to politics. One little misstep, one unpopular decision, can cost you dearly. And people will remember for a long time to come. The opponents will make sure of it anyway. Of course it's also important to be a media darling. That has great influence on the general population and how they perceive somebody. The one who controls the media always will come out ahead, even in approval polls. I think the last election greatly showed that to be true. What does this say about the American public? Well, looks like they are easily influenced by media portrayal and herd mentality. They also rather look at 'what have you done for me lately?' rather than at the overall picture. They easily forget the good stuff but have a long memory for all the bad stuff. Somehow we do enjoy our right of free speech and the privilege to be able to bash our President, don't we? What does it say about the presidents? They are essentially in a golden cage now. Anything and everything they do, publicly as well as privately, will be evaluated, picked apart, and most likely criticized. In this time and age they have to be more than ever watchful at all time. And it's not only them but also their immediate and even extended family. Any misstep by any of them is usually taken as a negative reflection upon the President. Also, although they have to make unpopular decisions they have to wrap it nicely and neatly for the general public not to be too upset. If they are under attack from the general public so to speak, they cannot talk back and tell them off. That's not taken nicely by the general public as well. So, either they do what the public wants or they have to live with the negative evaluations. Since one cannot do right by everybody... well they are bound and doomed for bad approval ratings somewhere in their presidency... It's how they deal with it that shows how good a president they are.

It shows that people are easily swept away by the promises politicians make in the beginning, but become disillusioned with that particular politician as their presidency continues. Everyone hopes for a president to come in and sweep them off their feet with all the improvements they promise, but when reality strikes and the president can't always deliver (or makes big mistakes in their career), people lose faith in them. That, or it means the groups of people who are asked about their opinions on the president changes from group to group. I don't really know how approval polls are conducted, so I sincerely doubt that's the case. It seems like every presidents approval ratings drop throughout their terms as president, so I've always chalked it up to people realizing that even the president is human and therefore makes human mistakes.

As someone else already said, I guess we're awful fickle, aren't we? What's really weird, if you happened to see when all the living Presidents had lunch at the White House last week, Carter, Bush, Sr., Clinton, Bush and Obama, they told how all of the past Presidents have much higher approval ratings now than they did when they left office. They're all up in the high 60's, then there was George W. in the low 20's and Obama, who hadn't been sworn in yet, of course, in the 70's. I guess it's because Carter, Bush Sr. and Clinton have all done worthwhile things since leaving office and people no longer think of them as "politicians" but rather as humanitarians. Annie

I think it has more to do with the rollacoaster of the economy at the time and towards the end of the terms people are just looking for someone new. I mean I don't think anyone will really want to keep one president forever.