Remember when Clinton had a 73% approval rating?

[cthulu2016]

I sure didn't remember it! But it's true. I was looking up some old Clinton numbers from the election of '96 to see when he broke away from Dole and found this.



http://www.gallup.com/poll/116584/presidential-approval-ratings-bill-clinton.aspx

[tblue]

1. That's an astounding number.

He is an amazing communicator. Way better than Reagan and even Obama.

[DURHAM D]

2. Yes

He talked with us. When he made a decision we might not like he explained why he did it. IOWs - we might not like it but we understood it.

[orwell]

3. It's not rocket science...

...as the economy did better for many, President Clinton's approval numbers improved.

This chart looks similar to Reagan's, which also improved with the economy.

It also looks similar to President Obama's at the same stage of his presidency.

It can't be mentioned enough that the situation that President Obama inherited was far far worse than anything that Reagan or President Clinton inherited.

In that respect President Obama is doing remarkably well considering the absolute cluster-f*ck he walked into.

It is also worth mentioning that President Clinton was a white southern man, not a bi-racial Hawaiian with a Kenyan father and a Muslim-sounding name.

[DavidDvorkin]

5. The recession was over by the time Reagan took office

But of course the GOP gave him the credit for that, and they have been successful at rewriting history.

[cthulu2016]

6. There's nothing in the OP comparing Clinton to Obama.

It has nothing to do with Obama at all.

It is just interesting that a US president in relative peacetime hit such a gaudy number after being impeached.

Excluding the post-election homeymoon period (where everyone get's 70s for a little while), That's the highest peacetime reading in most people's lifetimes. So it's interesting.

[Beacool]

7. I think that most people, while not approving his behavior, realized that the impeachment

was right wing B.S. They persecuted him, his wife and various staffers for 5 years. And all for what? After spending millions of dollars they entrapped him and he ends up being impeached over lying about receiving oral sex???????

The whole thing was a disgrace. People knew that and it showed in the polls.

[Beacool]

4. I like Bill.

He's still the best politician to come down the pike in decades. He has an innate ability to empathize with people. He is also great at explaining even the most complicated issues in terms that anyone can understand.

[joeybee12]

8. at his height things were going well and the impeachment farce

was going on, and the numbers went up as a reaction to the nazi scum leading the witchhunt.