United States Presidential approval rating

In the United States, presidential job approval ratings were introduced by George Gallup in the late 1930s (probably 1937) to gauge public support for the president during his presidency. An approval rating is a percentage determined by a polling which indicates the percentage of respondents to an opinion poll who approve of a particular person or program. Most often an approval rating is given to a political figure based on responses to a poll in which a sample of people are asked whether they approve or disapprove of that particular political figure. A typical question might ask:

:"Which of the following best describes your opinion of the things President George W. Bush has done: strongly approve, somewhat approve, somewhat disapprove, strongly disapprove, or no opinion/undecided."

Like most surveys that predict public opinion, the approval rating is subjective. Many unscientific approval rating systems exist that skew popular opinion. However, the approval rating is generally accepted as the general opinion of the people.

Current President (George W. Bush)

Related concepts

There are several polling concepts related to an approval rating. A disapproval rating measures the number of people who disapprove of a politician, and is essentially the opposite of an approval rating. A net approval rating is the difference between an individual's approval and disapproval numbers. This number is especially useful with individuals who lack name recognition. A candidate which registers 50% undecided, and has a 30% approval versus a 20% disapproval could be judged to have a favorable net approval rating, even though 30% approval looks bad on its own.

There are also favorability rating polls done during a president's tenure that gauge whether people have a favorable impression of the president or not.

ee also

*Public perception of George W. Bush

References

External links

* [http://webapps.ropercenter.uconn.edu/CFIDE/roper/presidential/webroot/presidential_rating.cfm Historical Presidential Job Performance Ratings - Roper Center]
* [http://www.data360.org/graph_group.aspx?Graph_Group_Id=292 Historical Midterm Presidential Approval Ratings Data from Data360]
* [http://www.pollingreport.com/BushJob.htm PollingReport]
* [http://www.pollster.com/presbushapproval.php Pollster]
* [http://www.realclearpolitics.com/polls/archive/?poll_id=19 RealClearPolitics]
* [http://www.presidentpollsusa.com President Job Approval Ratings]