Presidential Approval Ratings and What It Means

I'm sure you've heard the different talking heads on the various news channels such as CNN, MSNBC, FOX News and the like throwing out this percentage called the presidential approval rating. Basically, what the people over at the Gallup poll have done is they have survey a number of Americans from various locations on how well they think the president is doing.

As of the latest poll on July 31, 2011 the overall percentage is at around 42%. This is in stark contrast to his rating within the liberal democrats which is at 83%. Now there are a few factors that must be taken into account when we look at this number.

1. The Economy - Whenever the economy is bad then the approval rating will be low and vice versa. When the economy is good then the approval rating will spike. Since the country is in pretty bad shape financially, this low rating should not be a surprise. People tend to lose confidence in their leader when they can't pay their bills.

2. Political Affiliation - With the climate in America right now people want to get rid of the entire government and start all over. They are tired of the Democrats and Republicans and are leaning more towards independents and The Tea Party *Shudders*. Even though this is just a small part of the equation, it can affect the outcome. The fact that he is a democrat will cause republicans to not approve of his job. While some republicans did vote for him, many feel that their candidate would have done a better job thus giving him a lower approval score.



3. Voters vs. Non Voters - These polls do not differentiate between voters and non voters. This means that people that will not really affect the outcome of an election are still casting their approval rating. So in reality his approval rating could be lower than what is shown by a few points.

4. Race - Yes I know I know, people are going to say that I am playing the race card here but this does play into the equation. White people in places such as the southern states will never give him a good approval rating simply because of his race. No matter how well he does. On the flipside of it there are black people that will give him a high approval rating regardless of how he is doing just because he is black.



That is a small breakdown of how the approval rating works and what goes into play when trying to figure it out. This is in no way the definitive means to tell how they figure out the percentages and I'm sure they will never tell. There are a number of situations that can determine these numbers.