Many people seem to be surprised at the slide in President Obama’s approval ratings. From the time of the oath, Obama has fallen down from 65 % to 50 % making him the recipient of the lowest approval rating of all time for any president at this stage of their presidency.
If you think about it, the slide is understandable. Obama’s message of Hope and Change were interpreted and read in numerous ways by all. This created unnecessarily high hopes, which were frankly unrealistic. After all the man inherited an economy which was at best in shambles. Add to this the various messes left behind by the Bush administration and you begin to understand the seemingly insurmountable task faced by Barack Obama.
However, he is not the only one to suffer this fate, Presidents Reagan, Clinton and even Bush senior went through the same slide at differing points. Reagan’s drop to below 50 percent in his first year stayed with him for as long as two years, Clinton had the fastest fall to below 50 percent in his first year and Bush senior had dropped so far by the end of the Gulf War in 1991 that he failed to get re-elected.
All is not lost as Obama can recover from this slide. The sooner the economy gets back on its feet, the quicker the approval ratings will go up. He has to stand firm, weather this storm, and continue to work on delivering his election promises.
