Barack Obama: Popular (for now)

NaDa SuRf - PoPuLaR
Uploaded by MiKaEl94

The approval rating polls of the Obama presidency are out, and President Obama is doing all right. He has a 68% approval rating overall, which is about where Reagan was for his first approval rating, but behind George Bush Sr. This isn't really surprising, as most incoming presidents start out with fairly high approval ratings. That said, he still isn't winning over many self-identified Republicans, as only about 1/3rd or them seem to think he's doing an okay job. So much for the whole post-partisan pipe dream.

But for the most part, Obama's a pretty popular dude. So popular, in fact, that even congressional Democrats are seeing their numbers go up. A whopping 50% of the country actually approves of the job the D's in the House and Senate are doing, which is huge because, cmon, who likes Harry Reid? Only 38% thought their Republican counterparts were doing a good job, because of, I don't know, we'll say the stimulus. Except less than half of those polled even think the federal government will manage to not screw that up, so maybe no.

Anyway, the point is President Obama is popular for now, and I'm still surprised this song was as big of a hit as it was.