Suggestion -- Please use this tool before posting/reacting to "scary" POTUS approval ratings.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/presidential-approval-tracker.htm

Use the comparison tool to see where Obama is compared to others since WWII. Keep in mind, however, that LBJ's and Ford's ratings start on the date they took over for JFK and Nixon, respectively. The bottom line is this -- approval ratings go down at this point in a Presidency. When you consider that none of these other Presidents had the mess that Obama has to deal with, I'm not worried one bit.

nice he didn't do anything much but golf and had about the best polls of any of them.

A HISTORY OF RECESSION IN THE UNITED STATES 1950 TO 2008
Written by: mike kohr 2/12/2008

Criminologists look for patterns to solve and prevent crimes. And in the comparison of the economic records of Democrat and Republican administrations there is a glaring pattern all but ignored by the corporate media. Nine of the last ten recessions have occurred under the direction of Republican economic policy. And proving that history does repeat itself, examine the three greatest slowdowns in US economic history, 1929*, 1982, 2007, all three were attributed to poor economic and tight credit policy, all three featured deregulation and lack of oversight of the financial markets, and all three were presided over by a Republican President.

Recession of 2007-present George W. Bush(R) Greatest downturn since 1929, blamed on lack of regulation of financial markets and collapse of credit markets

Recession of 2001 George W. Bush(R) Began in April of 2001, marked the beginning of greatest deficit spending in all of recorded human history

Recession of 1990-1991 George H.W. Bush(R) Deregulation of Savings and Loan industry led to a collapse and panic, which led to election of Bill Clinton, who produced the greatest increase in jobs and wealth in all of recorded human history

Recession of 1981-1982 Ronald Reagan(R) At the time, the most severe contraction of economy since the Great Depression, massive deficit spending/deregulation of markets, and tight fiscal policy in an effort to kill inflation were blamed for this downturn **

Recession of 1980 2nd & 3rd quarters Jimmy Carter (D) Shortest and least severe slow down, generally attributed to Iranian Revolution and increase in oil prices, led to the election of Ronald Reagan

Recession of 1973-1975 Richard M Nixon(R) OPEC’s increase in oil prices and massive spending in the escalation of war in Vietnam led to stagflation, the second economic crash of Nixon’s administration. Real GDP fell by 4.9%, second greatest drop since 1937.

Recession of 1969-1970 Richard M. Nixon(R) Credited to Nixon’s escalation of and massive spending in Vietnam War and OPEC’s increase in price of oil

Recession of 1960 -1961 Dwight D. Eisenhower(R) Noted for high unemployment, low GDP, high inflation JFK ended the recession by stimulating the economy 10 days after taking office

Recession of 1957-1958 Dwight D. Eisenhower(R) Eisenhower achieved the dubious distinction of achieving a second economic downturn on his watch, a record later matched by Richard M. Nixon, and George W. Bush

Recession of 1953 Dwight D. Eisenhower(R) Increased outlays to National defense and restrictive credit policies blamed for this downturn.

There are few things that are certain in life but this economic record of the last 58 years provides one. When a Republican is elected to the White House, there is a 100% chance that the economy will slide into a recession and a 50% chance that two or more recessions will occur.
With an unbroken record of fubar, failure and foul up one would expect Republicans to have a (FU) after their names instead of a (R)

are you kidding me??????
And Ford didn't have the backlash of Nixon.........who are you trying to kid?
You couldn't have lived through those times to write such silly comments!

a financial system teetering on total collapse
debt near our borrowing limits
soaring unemployment
auto industry on life support
two wars, one of which violated international law
widespread horrendous torture
aftermath of the worst president in history

I could go on, but I hope you can see that Obama would be glad to have only LBJ's or Ford's problems.

brink of another Great Depression.

I remember a lot of anger during each of those transistions. But I never saw FEAR like I did during this one. Not even after 9/11 did I see so much fear. The prospect of losing one's job and their family becoming poor is much more personal to the average person than one part of the country being attacked.

I'm not downplaying the importance of 9/11, I'm just reporting what I saw.

Obama was saddled with two wars to which the US was already heavily committed.

Nifty little tool

was lost to Vietnam.

year he won re-election with 59%. Why? the recession of 82-83 was finally ending and by '84 the economy was much stronger. The same thing will happen with Obama--as the economy improves so will his numbers.

Is Palin the Republican Mondale?

to be the first to post lowering approval numbers. Those of us in the reality based world, knew that once the president began to govern, and his agenda began to emerge, that his numbers would take a hit. It happens to the best of them.

Thanks again for posting.

there are those who have this disease when it comes to polling of the President.
They want to see his numbers go down so bad....