Obama headed for one of lowest-ever presidential approval ratings: poll

U.S. President Barack Obama has averaged 47.3 percent job approval during his presidency to date. Without substantial improvement during his final year in office, his full-term approval average will rank near the bottom of the list for post-World War II presidents, Gallup found in a latest poll.

Obama was elected on his mantra of hope and change, and on a departure from the policies of the past, including the Iraq War, which caused the ratings of the previous president, George W. Bush, to plummet.

But since then, Obama has been bedeviled by a number of factors, and it seems likely that his full-term average approval rating will rank among the lowest of post-World War II presidents, Gallup found in the poll released Thursday.

However, Obama can still end his term on a strong note. As was the case for former President Ronald Reagan and other presidents, his popularity at the time he leaves office may matter more in how Americans view his presidency in retrospect than his overall average approval rating while in office, Gallup said.

One factor working against Obama has been governing when the U.S. economy struggled to emerge from the massive recession that took hold during his initial years in office. Millions of people were laid off at the time, and still have not found full time work, even years later.

Another factor handicapping Obama is being president in an era of intense partisanship. While presidents' approval ratings have always been higher from supporters of their own party than from supporters of the opposition, the gap between these ratings has risen to new extremes under Obama, Gallup found.

Since Obama has been in office, he has averaged 13 percent job approval among Republicans. Recent presidents' approval ratings have been significantly better among supporters of the opposing party, including for George W. Bush (average 23 percent approval from Democrats), Bill Clinton (average 27 percent approval from Republicans), George H.W. Bush (average 44 percent approval from Democrats), and Ronald Reagan (average 31 percent approval from Democrats).

All of those presidents, including Obama, averaged between 82 percent and 84 percent approval from supporters of their own party while in office, according to Gallup.

To further illustrate the degree that partisanship now affects the way Americans evaluate presidents, the party gaps in approval ratings of Obama are more than twice as large as they were for former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford, Gallup found. Enditem