President Barack Obama’s job approval rating has hit new lows, dipping even below Jimmy Carter’s rating at this point in his presidency.
That’s remarkable considering that Carter was smack in the middle of the Iranian Hostage Crisis about this time in his first and only term. Approval of Obama on the job, as measured by Gallup, had fallen to 43 percent. Carter was at 51 percent by this time.
Obama’s low rating is more stark when you match it up against other recent presidents.
At this time in the first term, Richard Nixon was at 50 percent approval, Ronald Regan was at 54 percent, George H.W. Bush was at 52 percent, Bill Clinton was at 51 percent and George W. Bush was at 55 percent.
The only recent president whose popularity was almost as low as Obama’s is now, was Lyndon Johnson, who dropped out of the 1968 presidential election as support bottomed out for the Vietnam War.
Johnson was at 44 percent at this point in his first and only elected term.
Obama’s job approval rating falls below Jimmy Carter’s
And the below map is the Carter/Reagan race---
Frankly--I was surprised to see it take so long to get this low--and I believe Obama's higher approval ratings were based more on personal likability--rather than actual job performance. The fat lady is starting to hum very loudly on Obama's chances to a second term. The best thing he could do now is gracefully back out of this race like LBJ did--in an effort to save his party from going off a cliff with him. I think his ego is way to big to do that--so I imagine if not by some miracle in a grandeoso comeback with our economy--I believe we will be looking at the same type of map in November of 2012, if not worse.
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