President Obama is leaving office on a very high note
Barack Obama leaves office Friday with 6 in 10 Americans approving of his job performance, capping a steady rise that vaults him above the average final mark for modern presidents, a new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds.
Obama's high-note finish comes with plenty of dissonance, including persistent pessimism about the nation's direction and deep divisions after Donald Trump's victory in last year's presidential race after campaigning strongly against Obama's policies.
Yet Americans grew significantly more positive about Obama's presidency through the acidic 2016 campaign as perceptions of the economy improved. The president's approval ratings were underwater in July 2015, when 45 percent approved and 50 percent disapproved of his performance. But his overall approval grew to a steady 50 percent by January 2016, and rose again to 56 percent in June, never falling below the mid-50s through the fall campaign.
The latest Post-ABC poll shows Obama hitting 60 percent approval, with 38 percent disapproving — his highest mark since June of his first year in office, when 65 percent approved of him. The latest poll finds 61 percent approve of Obama's handling of the economy, while a smaller 53 percent approve how he has handled the threat of terrorism and 52 percent rate him positively for handling health care.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...g-post-abc-poll-finds/?utm_term=.1aa5a297314c
Donald Trump and Barack Obama's Approval Ratings Are Directly Inverted Right Now
Welcome to the upside down.
Donald J. Trump will enter office as the least popular president-elect in modern history, while his predecessor has a seat at the head of the cool kids' table.
Trump's 40 percent favorability rating—a CBS poll actually has it as low as 32 percent—is 39 points below President-elect Obama's in 2009.
In that same CBS poll, 62 percent of Americans said they approved of how Obama had handled his job of president, while a CNN poll, also out today, has it at 60 percent. That 62 number is the third highest among outgoing presidents since 1981, behind Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, tied at 68.
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/videos/a52353/trump-approval-ratings-obama/
