Obama's Approval Rating Spikes to 50%

[toddwv]

http://www.gallup.com/poll/113980/Gallup-Daily-Obama-Job-Approval.aspx

We keep hearing that President Obama is the most "divisive President in history" from our right-wing friends. However, Obama's approval rating is now higher that Reagan's and Bush II's.

No doubt it's related to the approach he has adopted towards the Republicans in Congress and an economy that is putting up increasingly better numbers, with the important exception of increasing wages for the middle class and below.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

1. KIck/NT

[closeupready]

2. So he turns sharp left, and his popularity ascends.

Huh. How about that. Look for Dems to draw the wrong lessons from that phenomenon, i.e., promoting "centrism" or "practicality" and "bipartisanship".

[Maedhros]

6. Think of how his popularity may have spiked had he fought for Single Payer.

We all would have had his back!

[Demeter]

9. Ah, but we mustn't look back!

Who knows what kind of dragon(dragging) is behind....

[1StrongBlackMan]

16. Even when that fight went down in flames? ...

Yeah, right!

[Cha]

38. They'll hang on to "if only he'd fought for single payer".. forever. Even though single payer was

never going to happen at that time and would have only wasted valuable time.

[great white snark]

44. This pining for progressive policies lost is getting f@$%&%g old Cha.

6+ years in now with so much accomplished and people still fixate on things that never could have been. It really does take away from what has been done IMHO.

[Cha]

47. They like living in the past.. if only President Obama..

were FDR! They're too busy pining to know what's actually been Accomplished under our current President.

snark

[sheshe2]

56. Damn straight great white snark!

well done.

[Ed Suspicious]

52. Leaders ought to lead. Leading away from single payer had Obama doing the bidding of the elites

who have no interest in redistribution.

[1StrongBlackMan]

55. How do you suppose that Liebermann ...

could have been led to single-payer?

[Tarheel_Dem]

80. Or Max Baucus?

[madokie]

72. No changing 'em

'If only' has fucked up many a good thing though out history
I'm surprised he got as good of a deal as he did to be honest with you. He has to deal with pukies and they don't play fair and haven't for years. Many here can't grasp that though

[1StrongBlackMan]

15. "Turns sharp left"??? ...

This is getting really difficult to follow ... President Obama is, at once, turning sharply to the left AND the centrist, corporatist, purveyor of American sovereignty and worker doom!

[closeupready]

17. He's trying to reverse course on our increasingly regressive income taxation scheme,

that alone would characterize him as left, but he's also gone left on lots of other things which, as have been noted here, have very little chance of passing through a Republican Congress.

But I get your sarcastic point, lol. It can be very hard to keep up here on DU, from day to day, whether he's a hero or a villain, lol.

[1StrongBlackMan]

19. He's been ...

trying to reverse course on our increasingly regressive income taxation scheme,

Doing that since 2009.

ETA: Just to be safe, let's just have him as the villain that occasionally does the good stuff that we forced him to do. That'll get you a couple hundred Recs.

[closeupready]

20. Not with as much swagger as he has now.

On your edit, yes, ok, lol.

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

22. Pragmatists have to settle for watered down policy all the time ...

I knew who I was voting for back then, and it wasnt a liberal in the sense of what I think of as liberal.

It wasnt a rightwinger either.

I was voting for someone I knew to be a product of the political process, who was or is not just intelligent compared to W (a ham sandwich would be intelligent in comparison to W) but intelligent compared to Clinton, who was and is one of the smartest presidents if not the smartest of all time. (at the risk of sounding racist, referring to him as intelligent actually is meant to contrast the hell we had to endure the previous 8 yrs, not that he is special because he is simultaneously black and smart)

But I am no historian so maybe I will get educated on that one.

Regardless, I knew what Obama was and wasnt.

When he woke up the day after being elected, he was presented with an opposition party who met in secret the night before agreeing to destroy the economy of the United States of America so as to destroy Obama.

Faced with obstruction and unprecedented unpatriotic behavour such as this, he did what he could, and in some cases that was amazing.

[Number23]

46. "let's just have him as the villain that occasionally does the good stuff that we forced him to do"

You are so wicked.

PERFECTLY said.

[Cha]

39. Now, they're trying to take credit for Obama at the same time bashing him.. the President has always

been who is.. not someone who dances to anyone else's tune/drum.

[stevenleser]

75. Well said. They are absolutely trying to have it both ways. Hilarious. nt

[Marr]

25. +1

[Stallion]

3. 50-45 (+5) Too

I think its time to announce that he's running for that 3rd term

[LawDeeDah]

4. I wonder if the fair weather dem friends will be running back toward him now

rather than distancing themselves. Maybe Grimes will admit she actually did vote for Obama now that it might be okay to do that! Such backbone.

[Cha]

41. Really.

[Takket]

5. isn't a Pres having a 50+ rating in 2nd term basically unheard of?

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. No, popular presidents manage it

You can compare them at the same stage of their presidency here: http://www.gallup.com/poll/124922/Presidential-Job-Approval-Center.aspx

For the latest point of Obama's presidency, the figures and post-WW2 equivalents are:
Obama 49% (this is a weekly figure, so not quite up to the 50% figure yet)
Truman 24%
GW Bush 32%
Reagan 43% (this had just taken a step dive - I'm guessing Iran-Contra had just been exposed)
Eisenhower 59%
Clinton 69%

So Obama is above average, but nowhere near the population of Bill Clinton.

[Cha]

53. "Obama Job Approval up to 50% For the First Time Since 2013".. and it's Gallup. And, I don't care

if it's not as high as Bill Clinton's. The Hate MOngers are doing too good a job for that to be realistic.

[sheshe2]

63. Holy~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Only 50 % !!@#$%^&*)_+_)(*&^%$#@$%^&*@#$%^

Kidding~ To be clear.

[Cha]

65. Yes, but not as high as Bill Clinton's!

Rofl..

With all the brainwashed hate one sees online.. regurgitated stupid stuff about Pres Obama .. I'll take Obama's well earned 50%, she!



she

[sheshe2]

66. Your banana rocks!

Stole it~

I am

Luv ya Cha!

[Cha]

67. Our Basketball Playin', Watchin' President Rocks,

too, she!

[stevenleser]

76. I think Obama's will be close to Clinton's was when he leaves office.

I think lots of folks are waking up to the fact that they have been brainwashed into hating him.

[Cha]

77. That would be nice.. cop to being brainwashed! lol

[McCamy Taylor]

7. And so it should. At least he is doing his job--unlike some others in DC.

[Demeter]

8. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin is in the 80%-tile approval by HIS people

and has been for quite some time.

Of course, Putin is doing good things for his nation, like jailing criminal oligarchs, or exiling them, etc., etc....and offering refuge to Ukrainians fleeing their government and the madness of the civil war driven by old-time Nazis....and keeping the world from bombing Syria, Iran, and other neocon targets....

You know, basic stewardship, statesmanship, and integrity. His popularity doesn't fluctuate with his speeches. It's built on real actions that improve Russian life.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

11. So, you're comparing Obama with someone who clearly violates human rights

and kills his own people? One who is virulently bigoted and homophobic. And by the way, he has allowed his economy to be destroyed via economic sanctions due to those human rights violations.

But your hatred of this president is so great that you have to resort to a despot's doctored polling data to make your point? Pathetic!

[Demeter]

13. Kindly recall that Obama kills his own people, without trial

and with drones, truly an example of courage and justice!

During which exercise of his Gameboy, he manages to off an incredible number of innocent civilians, too: women, children, the elderly, entire wedding parties....

[GummyBearz]

21. oh snap...

[JaneyVee]

28. So does Putin.

[Demeter]

30. I'm assuming you have some kind of credible report on that?

Would you care to share it? Enlighten us!

[Tarheel_Dem]

32. Always bear in mind that Putin has his cheerleaders here & elsewhere, no matter how despicable.

TYT/Buzzfeed: "Russia's Online Troll Army Is Huge, Hilarious & Already Everywhere "

"Moscow is financing legions of pro-Russia Internet commenters. But how much do they matter?"

"Russia's campaign to shape international opinion around its invasion of Ukraine has extended to recruiting and training a new cadre of online trolls that have been deployed to spread the Kremlin's message on the comments section of top American websites.

[Demeter]

37. Nobody pays me to do research and talk to actual people

Is that what it would take to enlighten you? $$$$?

[Cha]

42. Oh, they love them some Homophobic, Journalist Censoring, Internet Suppressing dictator.. I really

wish they could live under his rule.. then they could hate Obama in the country they love.

Them and the RW love RW Putin..



Pravda (Hearts) Tea Party: American Conservatism Embraced By Russian Right-Wing And Vice Versa

"...kneeling at Christ's Holy Sepulcher which Obama never does when visiting Jerusalem. They see him going to church when they know Obama favors Muslims who attack Christians and their churches. They see Putin establishing laws to protect the church and laws against homosexuality. This they admire and this brings them hope. Hope in their upside down world where there is a leader willing to follow Christ. They have no Reagan but they see Putin whom they wish was their president."

"There you have it. Obama is an anti-Christian, Muslim lover, while Putin is the Second Coming of Ronald Reagan. A devout, law and order Christian who can inspire the Teabagging masses. Putin is their 21st century savior who can restore America and the world. The article even includes emails that the author received from Americans wishing Putin could be the U.S. president. And to top it all off, it closes with an evangelical sermon lambasting the "lamestream" media and exalting Putin's piety and the glory of Christ's guidance to the "Truth." [FYI: Pravda, in Russian, means truth]."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/09/18/1239872/-Pravda-Hearts-Tea-Party-American-Conservatism-Embraced-By-Russian-Right-Wing-And-Vice-Versa

[sheshe2]

57. LS~

Good to see you!

The unprecedented hate of this President scares me. Who are we? What have we become?

[Cha]

60. Consider the source, she.. it's

their problem.

Mahalo!

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

73. He's black! That's what brings their hate to the surface. They'll even embrace a homophobic bigot

and a murderer if that'll excuse their hatred for this president.

I'm posting sporadically. Not sure if I made the right decision coming back to this place.

[1StrongBlackMan]

18. You're kidding, right? ...

Note: It's pretty easy to get high approval ratings when dissent/disapproval results in jail, or worst.

[Demeter]

29. You mean, like Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning? That kind of stuff?

[JI7]

34. none of them are in prison for dissent

[Cha]

48. Facts don't matter to them.

[1StrongBlackMan]

35. Breaking laws by stealing and deseminating ...

Sensitive information is neither dissent, nor disagreement.

Other than that ... Yeah, it's just like that!

[Demeter]

40. Then you obviously missed this story about US dissent from 2014

After 43 years, activists admit theft at FBI office that exposed domestic spying
By Michael Isikoff, National Investigative Correspondent, NBC News

http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/06/22205443-after-43-years-activists-admit-theft-at-fbi-office-that-exposed-domestic-spying?chromedomain=usnews

In the bombshell book, "The Burglary," journalist Betty Medzger exposes the robbers behind the momentous theft from an FBI office outside Philadelphia over 40 years ago. The perpetrators have come forward in an interview with NBC News. Forty-three years after the mysterious theft of up to 1,000 documents from an FBI office outside Philadelphia, three former political activists are publicly confessing to the brazen burglary, calling it an act of “resistance” that exposed “massive illegal surveillance and intimidation.”

“We did it … because somebody had to do it,” John Raines, 80, a retired professor of religion at Temple University, said in an interview with NBC News. “In this case, by breaking a law — entering, removing files — we exposed a crime that was going on. … When we are denied the information we need to have to act as citizens, then we have a right to do what we did.”

Raines, his wife, Bonnie, and Keith Forsyth, a former Philadelphia cab driver, said they were part of an eight-member ring of anti-Vietnam War protesters that — while much of the country was gripped by the so-called “Fight of the Century” in New York between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier — broke into the FBI’s Media, Penn., office on March 8, 1971. Members of the burglary team, armed with little more than a crowbar and wearing suits and ties, then walked off undetected with suitcases stuffed with sensitive bureau files that revealed a domestic FBI spying operation known as COINTELPRO. The heist enraged the bureau’s legendary Director J. Edgar Hoover, who launched a massive but ultimately futile manhunt.

The identities of the burglars are revealed in a book being published Tuesday, "The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI," by Betty Medsger, a former Washington Post reporter. The book, as well as a new film, "1971," by documentarian Johanna Hamilton, portray the break-in as a story with new resonance in light of the recent revelations of National Security Agency surveillance of American citizens by ex-contractor Edward Snowden.

Much like Snowden, the FBI burglars selectively leaked the stolen files to journalists. They produced months of headlines about FBI surveillance of anti-war and civil rights groups — including the first references to COINTELPRO, a secret program started years earlier by Hoover and aimed at smearing the reputations of perceived enemies such as Dr. Martin Luther King.

[1StrongBlackMan]

54. Yes ...

I missed that story.

But I can see the similarity of this and resistance in Russia.

[JaneyVee]

27. Are you out of your effin mind?

You must not know much about Russia. Here's an idea: Try being a dissenter in Russia, let me know how that works.

[Demeter]

31. What, pray tell, would I be dissenting about?

[Cha]

50. Protests put down in Russia after dissenter sentenced

Police officers detain an opposition supporter during an unauthorized rally in support of Alexei and Oleg Navalny in central Moscow, Dec. 30, 2014.

Russia's top opposition leader Alexei Navalny on December 30, 2014, called for mass protests to "destroy" President Vladimir Putin's regime after a court handed him a suspended sentence and jailed his brother in a controversial fraud case.

http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/protests-put-down-in-russia-after-dissenter-sentenced/

Alexei Navalny sentenced to five years in prison

The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been sentenced to five years in prison at the end of a trial that was seen as politically motivated.

Navalny was taken from the courtroom in handcuffs after the judge, Sergei Blinov, ended a three-hour verdict reading by finding him guilty of embezzlement. He hugged his wife, Yulia, and was led away by police.

On Thursday night, thousands of Russians flooded the main arteries leading to the Kremlin, demanding his freedom and calling for the ousting of the president, Vladimir Putin. Dozens were detained.

An anti-corruption activist who became the most popular figure to emerge from protests that erupted around Putin's return to the Kremlin last year, Navalny was accused of embezzlement, and a handful of other charges, after Putin unleashed a crackdown on the opposition in the wake of his inauguration.


http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/18/alexei-navalny-five-years-prison-russia

This is their putin.. charming.

[Demeter]

81. You do understand the meaning of embezzlement, don't you?

It's theft on a grand scale, by deception.

There isn't anything "political" about that (unless, as in the USA, it doesn't get prosecuted. All that mortgage fraud was theft, robo-signing (lying for pay), and worse. Millions of people will never recover from it. What did the banksters get as punishment? NOTHING!)

[Cha]

84. The Dictator Putin's Trumped up Charges.. but go ahead.. defend that rwinger homophobic, internet ..

suppressing *******.

Putin ramps up Internet censorship, citing Google and Snowden to ensure public support

"On March 13, a half-dozen highly trafficked opposition blogs and indie media outlets were suddenly blocked within Russia. The websites — including the highly respected Ekho Moskvy radio station and the blog of popular nationalist opposition politician, Alexei Navalny — received no notice of the impeding cutoff.

There was no court order, no trial, not even a public hearing. But there’s no doubt the move was official: Roskomnadzor, Russia’s mass media and telecommunications regulator, very publicly announced it in a directive to Russian ISPs, explaining that access to these websites must be blocked for extremism and for encouraging people to attend unsanctioned protests — in this case, against Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

This new formal power to unilaterally block access to any website comes via a brand new Internet censorship law that went into effect on February 1, 2014. It’s called the “Law of Lugovoi” — named after its author, State Duma Deputy Andrei Lugovoi, a scary ex-FSB officer-turned-Duma deputy who is better known as the prime suspect in the 2007 polonium assassination of Alexander Litvinenko in London.

MOre..
http://pando.com/2014/03/20/putin-ramps-up-internet-censorship-citing-google-and-snowden-to-ensure-public-support/

[Tarheel_Dem]

33. If you can't manage damn near unanimous approval in a closed society, you must be doing it wrong.

How 'bout that Kim Jong Un?

[Demeter]

36. If you think Russia is a closed society, then you don't know any Russians

I work with the emigres here in my town. Real stories, from real people, not propaganda and stuff left over from the USSR.

[Tarheel_Dem]

79. Pew Research: Russia’s Global Image Negative...Americans’ and Europeans’ Views Sour Dramatically

http://www.pewglobal.org/2014/07/09/russias-global-image-negative-amid-crisis-in-ukraine/pg-2014-07-09-russia-favorability-02/

Russia Increasingly Unpopular

Across the 44 countries surveyed, a median percentage of 43% have unfavorable opinions of Russia, compared with 34% who are positive.

Negative ratings of Russia have increased significantly since 2013 in 20 of the 36 countries surveyed in both years, decreased in six and stayed relatively similar in the remaining 10.

Americans and Europeans in particular have soured on Russia over the past 12 months. More than six-in-ten in Poland, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, the U.S. and the UK have an unfavorable image of Russia. And in all but one of these countries negative reviews are up by double digits since last year, including by 29 percentage points in the U.S., 27 points in Poland, 24 points in the UK and 23 points in Spain. Greeks stand out among their European counterparts – just 35% dislike Russia, virtually unchanged from last year.

Ukrainians’ attitudes toward Russia also have changed significantly over time. Six-in-ten in Ukraine rate Russia unfavorably today, compared with just 11% in 2011, the last time the question was asked. Within Ukraine, there are deep divides by region and language. More than eight-in-ten in the country’s west (83%) give Russia low marks, compared with 45% in the east and only 4% in Crimea. Within the east, Russian-only speakers (28%) are less negative toward Russia than their neighbors (58%).2




If they ain't closed by now, just wait.

[Cha]

43. Yeah, ******* Putin has his fans bragging about his high popularity in Russia. Poor sad little

things.. if only they could be there and cheer his speeches on in person.

[Number23]

49. But s/he works with the "emigres!" You know the people that FLED that place rather than wind up

like Pussy Riot or this guy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Litvinenko

Holy Hell on a hyenna. Just when I think this place CANNOT POSSIBLY get any dumber/weirder/more divorced from reality... some shit like this subthread comes along.

[Cha]

51. LOL@the putin fan club.. ted cruz is the president.

[Demeter]

58. People who travel back and forth to Russia did not "flee"

and it wasn't a closed society, either.

[Tarheel_Dem]

78. How the hell can anyone, with a straight face, brag about Pooty's approval numbers when we know....

what happens to journalists who oppose "The State"? These folks found out the hard way.


Russian Journalists Murdered Since 2000

After the report was finished, two more journalists were killed, including Natalia Estemirova in July 2009.



In November 2010, Kommersant journalist Oleg Kashin was severely beaten has has since recovered.


If your government doesn't tolerate opposing views, you're a fuckin' "closed society" as I stated before.

[Demeter]

82. Not a good comparison--The US has no journalists

Not any more. We have stenographers. For true investigative reporting, we must access real journalists in other countries, Greg Palast, Glenn Greewald, Linda Poitras, etc.

We are the closed society. The truth cannot get into print nor on the TV or radio. All we get is sensationalism, gossip, and propaganda.

The only way we stand a chance of finding out what is really going on is through the internet. Or travel. Or correspondence with people outside the US echo chamber.

Obama has done a really bloody knife job on Putin---but if one looks to the rest of the world, the truth comes out. The US is despised for its spying, droning, crashing computers, invading and overthrowing democratically elected countries, pushing deadly trade deals, and a whole lot more.

[Tarheel_Dem]

83. I provided a poll of Pooty's global approval. Can you provide the same to back this up....?

"but if one looks to the rest of the world, the truth comes out. The US is despised for its spying, droning, crashing computers, invading and overthrowing democratically elected countries, pushing deadly trade deals, and a whole lot more."

Can you quantify this statement?

[LanternWaste]

74. Putin certainly treats the Russian LGBT community with deference and respect

Putin certainly treats the Russian LGBT community with deference and respect-- his degree of stewardship and integrity accurately displayed as such in doing so as he improves the lives of LGBT Russians.

Good things for his nation, indeed. 80% approval rating, indeed.

(insert rationalization below for effective self-validation)

[LondonReign2]

10. Seems America likes a President that acts like a liberal

[yellowcanine]

12. Low gas prices, rebounding consumer confidence.

[B Calm]

23. Congress Approval Rating is 14%

[Fred Sanders]

24. Folks seem to forget that as they attack Obama for his measly unearned 50%.

[Cha]

62. "Measley unearned 50%".. Rofl.. LOL

[HappyMe]

26. It's that high?

That number will go down.

[herding cats]

45. as consumer confidence goes up, so will his numbers.

It's going to be interesting to watch the reactions from the RW.

[freshwest]

59. Sure he's 'divisive!' Dividing the rich parasites from the people's pockets!

[Cha]

61. Boom!

Thank you, fresh!

[spanone]

64. k&r....

[Cha]

68. KICK for Obama!

[Jamaal510]

69. This piece of news needs more kicks 'n recs. eom

[Cha]

70. Thanks for getting in there and doin' it, Jamaal!

[Cha]

71. K!

[Cha]

85. KICK BAM!