About Those Approval Ratings

Star Tribune letter writer Owen Hecht of Hastings, Minnesota, brings a reality check to the constant message that President Obama is unpopular and Democrats are running away from him (as in the cartoon from the Strib just a few days ago, in fact).

It seems every day I read about President Obama’s dismal job approval ratings. Here are the lowest approval ratings for the past nine presidents:

Obama: 38 percent, in September 2014.
George W. Bush: 25 percent in October 2008.
Bill Clinton: 37 percent in May 1993.
George H.W. Bush: 29 percent in July 1992.
Ronald Reagan: 35 percent in January 1983.
Jimmy Carter: 28 percent in June 1979.
Gerald Ford: 37 percent in March 1975.
Richard Nixon: 24 percent in August 1974
Lyndon Johnson: 35 percent in 1968.

Obama’s approval ratings this month have been above 40 percent.

I assume that Hecht has used the lowest approval ratings of each president. Most of these numbers are not from a mid-term election period (Nixon and Bush 1 are).

And, of course, remember that Congress's approval rating was at 14 percent in September.