Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:43 pm
An American electorate that is as polarized as ever seems to be coming to agreement on at least one fact: Barack Obama has been a good president.
The latest poll from Gallup shows that a healthy majority of Americans realize just how good we’ve had it under Obama:
#Obama Job Approval: Approve 57% (-); Disapprove 39% (-). Get the full trend https://t.co/xYJfJ7TmbI.
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— GallupNews (@GallupNews) December 21, 2016
Obama’s approval rating as he prepares to leave the White House is a whopping 35 points higher than George W. Bush’s was when he was on his way out.
The Gallup poll is no outlier, either.
Two other surveys from Rasmussen Reports and Reuters/Ipsos peg Obama’s approval rating at 54 percent and 56 percent, respectively.
The surge in the number of Americans that support the outgoing president could certainly be attributed to just how much the state of the union has improved during Obama’s time in the White House, particularly on the economic front.
With more Americans working and fewer uninsured, all as middle-class incomes are rising and poverty is falling, Obama is leaving the country in much better shape than it was when he took office. More people recognize this.
But they also see what’s on the horizon.
Next month, Trump will be sworn into an office that a majority of Americans think he is unequipped to hold. His behavior during the post-election transition period – when he has shown that he prefers to spend time on Twitter instead of taking questions from the press or doing the homework he didn’t care to do during the campaign – has only worsened these concerns.
As Hurricane Trump picks up steam on its way to the White House, more Americans are realizing just how much progress our country has made under Barack Obama. Now they must come to grips with the fact that they’ve just elected a man to replace him who promises to undo all of it.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
