Obama's 47 Percent Approval Lowest of Any President at This Point

[ulmont]

Speaking endlessly makes the filibuster easier for the minority, as they only have to have one speaker present at a time, while the majority has to have everyone present to try and invoke cloture.

[Strix]

Strix, out of these, which Presidents are remembered as the good ones? Reagan and Truman (similar poll results to Obama's) or G.W.Bush (highest)?

Obama would be closer to similarity to Reagan, as they both inherited a shitty economy and issues with the Muslim World. Obama might end up similar to Truman depending on how he finishes the two current conflicts he faces. Will he sell out like Truman? Or stay the course?

I think the poll is more about expectations than anything else. Those with higher ratings came into office with the expectation that good things would happen or, as is the case of George W, something happened in their first year that they handled which gave the country a lot of confidence in their President.

I think this is why the poll numbers are telling. Obama came into office with extremely high expectations and has failed to deliver. His numbers should be around 70% but aren't because there has been little hope or change as promised. People are coming to understand that Obama is not JFK reincarnated but they are starting to worry he might be Herbet Hoover.

[Neil]

Truman sold out?  He finished the war on Germany, the war on Japan, and the war on organized labour.

[Admiral Yi]

Strix must be a fan of Dugout Doug.

[Razgovory]

Strix must be a fan of Dugout Doug.

I thought CdM was.

[Fate]

nto office with extremely high expectations and has failed to deliver. His numbers should be around 70% but aren't because there has been little hope or change as promised. People are coming to understand that Obama is not JFK reincarnated but they are starting to worry he might be Herbet Hoover.

Unless Obama has 70% approval ratings he is a failure on the order of Hoover.

Will Palin be the FDR of our generation?

[Strix]

Strix must be a fan of Dugout Doug.

[dps]

Speaking endlessly makes the filibuster easier for the minority, as they only have to have one speaker present at a time, while the majority has to have everyone present to try and invoke cloture.

Uh, no, the Senators who are in the majority can go home and get some sleep, just leaving 1 or 2 of their number at a time, but the minority has to stay there so that if the guy speaking tires they can be sure that someone else takes his place.

[CountDeMoney]

Strix must be a fan of Dugout Doug.

I thought CdM was.

Anybody willing to bomb Red China wins points in my book, no matter how overrated.

[OttoVonBismarck]

yeah, it isn't exactly a new thing that you need a cloture-majority to pass controversial legislation.  The filibuster has been like this forever.

The rules have been around.  The filibuster was not routinely invoked until recently, though.  Take a loot at the chart below:

Not sure a graph showing the number of cloture motions is a good indicator of how much filibustering "gummed up the system."

You didn't get a lot of cloture votes when Southern Senators would filibuster civil rights bills because it almost always became readily apparent the filibuster was unassailable, and since the rest of the country didn't care that much about black people they just gave up.  Many times the Republicans or Northern Democrats who might be inclined to draft civil rights legislation wouldn't even bother since they knew they couldn't get past the Southern filibuster.

The filibuster was so powerful that it actually stopped certain types of legislation from even being considered, and that isn't something that you can measure with a graph showing the number of cloture motions over time.

[Sheilbh]

It would be interesting to know how much of the disapproval is coming from the left.

There's some CNN polling on this that could be of use

"In general, would you say that President Obama's views and proposed programs for the country are too liberal, not liberal enough, or just about right for the country?"
Too Liberal    Not Liberal Enough    Just About Right    Unsure    
          %                  %           %                          %    
10/30 - 11/1/09
   42    14    44    1    
     
7/31 - 8/3/09
   40    8    50    2    
     
3/12-15/09
   36    5    58    1    

"Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling his job as president?" If disapprove: "Do you disapprove because you think his policies and actions since he became president have been too liberal, or because you think his policies and actions have not been liberal enough?"

Approve    Disapprove:     Disapprove:              Disapprove:     
                Too Liberal    Not Liberal Enough     Unsure            Unsure
       %       %                   %                          %                             %
     
12/16-20/09
   54    34    8    2    2

12/2-3/09
   48    40    8    2    2

[Admiral Yi]

Very useful.

[Razgovory]

It would be more useful if the columns were lined up correctly.

[Eddie Teach]

It would be more useful if the columns were lined up correctly.

It would be more easily used, but not more useful.

[Razgovory]

It would be more useful if the columns were lined up correctly.

It would be more easily used, but not more useful.

An unused graph isn't very useful.