President Obama’s Approval Ratings Slide

By Kendra Gilbert on January 19th, 2010

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President Obama rode into office on a wave of change. And we had, and I believe continue to have, high hopes for him as leader of this country. But, after nearly a full year in office, the president’s approval ratings have slid significantly according to at least two polls. One poll conducted by ABC News and the Washington Post puts his overall job aproval rating at 53%, down from 68% in February of 2009. While CBS News reports a performance approval rating of 46%. Neither are stellar.

When it comes to his campaign promises of change, people are far more skeptical of the president’s ability these days than they were during his first few days in office. One year ago, 76% of people were confident President Obama would bring change to Washington. That number has dropped to 50% today, according to the ABC/Washington Post poll. Of course, the biggest hits have come from domestic issues such as the still-unsteady U.S. economy and languishing health care reform.

His personal appeal, however, is still high thanks in part to an exceptional favorability rating of 79% when he first took office. Without such a high number at the beginning of his first year, the 21% drop he suffered in this area might have hit him much harder. Instead, it seems to be his saving grace. But drops like these happen in every presedency. And given that 2009 was not a typical year, it’s to be expected that the president would come out of it with a a few blows to his job performance ratings. With that said, President Obama has a lot of work ahead of him.

And, really, these are just numbers. A lot of numbers. Certainly, they are a gauge for the president to use to focus his attention on pressing issues conerning U.S. citizens. But, they really don’t mean a whole lot, at least not in my book, at this point in time. We are just now starting to see the light at the end of this hellish economic mess. Let’s see where things go from here.