Obama Approval Inching Up? Not According To Gallup

The Obama approval rating has been trending upward, depending on what types of polls you believe. However, a reexamination from Gallup, one of the most respected polling groups in the field, indicates those reports may be greatly exaggerated.

For instance, the Huffington Post recently posted an article pointing out that President Obama had tied Ronald Reagan for this same point in his presidency.

However, HuffPo uses the deeply-flawed Rasmussen Reports and a CNN/ORC poll, both of which have been in question since completely missing the 2012 presidential election.

Checking the latest Gallup findings from December 27, it appears that President Obama’s ratings are approximately where they’ve been all year, and only slightly higher than they were when Republicans gave Democrats a drubbing in November’s midterm elections.

(All three polling groups believe this “back to average” improvement, which is way lower than when Obama took office in 2008, stems from improvements in the economy.)

Currently, 43 percent of the population approves of the president, while 51 percent disapprove, compared to 65 percent approval and 15 percent disapproval when he initially took office.

That leaves around 6 percent who are undecided on the Obama approval scale. If numbers on Obamacare are any indication, it’s unlikely those undecideds would break in the president’s favor.

Simply look to the approval of Obamacare.

As recently as the start of open enrollment in mid-November, the signature domestic achievement of the president hit a new numeric low in terms of the amount of people who support the law.

Just 37 percent saw the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as a good thing for the U.S. This was one percentage point lower than the previous all-time low, Politico notes.

Furthermore, the disapproval numbers hit 56 percent, a new all-time high, and most political analysts believe that the more divisive and controversial outcomes of the law have yet to occur (i.e. the employer mandate) because the president delayed their effects prior to the midterm elections.

(The law was supposed to have been fully implemented in 2014.)

While 43 percent is certainly better than 39 percent — which he actually hit in February 2014 and some prior to the November elections — his 2012 opponent, Mitt Romney, still polls better than him.

But what do you think, readers? Is stagnation of the Obama approval rating a number to celebrate as the president recovers from previous all-time lows, or are they the calm before a much more brutal storm? Share your thoughts in our comments section.

[Image via Mykhaylo Palinchak / Shutterstock.com]