That was part of a larger article here

He's losing independents in droves.

yep

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Devil

Build a man a fire, and he's warm for the night.
Set a man on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.

What?

Woot?

While I'm not anywhere near ready to make comparisons to Reagan and Obama (I think most people remember my thoughts on Reagan's death of my opinion of the man), I thought Sullivan's recent pointing out of their approval charts slightly interesting.



My own personal feelings on Reagan aside, he's someone a lot of people point back to as one of the greatest presidents of the nation. So I'm not entirely sure how well looking at first year approval ratings during a tough time period for the states is going to play out long term.

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Even more so when you look at GWB's line there and where it eventually ended up.

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Seeing you quote something from Andrew Sullivan (regardless of the point itself, which I'll talk about in a sec and is valid) is akin to seeing someone quote Glenn Beck. I had to stop reading that site once he latched onto the whole "Trig Palin isn't Sarah Palin's son" nonsense. It's literally like seeing peoples heads explode about Obama's birth certificate. You're quoting a guy who had to take a leave of absence from his job because he got so obsessed, promised he would deliver proof, and never did.

Anyhoo... I think you have to look at track record along with the polling if you want to make anything other than a coincidental comparison between the two. While polling is similar, their actions are very different.

The advent of the internet and in general how much more information is thrown at people these days skews the "what does it mean" takeaways, too, for comparisons sake. You don't really know if Reagan and Obama have a similar polling history because they are both doing the same types of things (which I'll assume from your standpoint is probably "pissing people off but doing the right things") or because politics is so much more partisan and polarizing than it ever has been.

It's an interesting point, Rugen, but I'd be interested in hearing from you how the policies are similar to Reagan if you want me to buy in that there is some similarity other than poll numbers.

I don't think it is a statement on their policies at all. The first year isn't a lot of track record given the state of the nation they inherited. I think it is more a statement of the White House that they inherited and a reaction to how they are trying to deal with it. The proof is going to be in the pudding, as it were, and what the long term reaction is to their policies and changes. The unemployment rate right now isn't because of TARP, but people are unhappy with the unemployment rate while they see things like TARP happening. So in the short term, it seems more a judgment of the US as a whole. As time stretches on and the policies either help or hurt, it starts to be more of a judgment of the president themselves.

Ultimately, it's more of a "really?" to people that want to pretend like Obama is done and over with now, given that "one of the greatest presidents of the US" (it literally pains me to type that :p) was on a similar track in his own presidency approval ratings.



And as an aside I'm not sure why you felt the need to point out Sullivan's failings. I don't even like the guy (this is someone who advocated that it was ok to not have safe sex, for heaven's sake). I still read him for another viewpoint on the things going on. I read quite a few people that make me foam at the mouth to read, but I still do it. His name wasn't tossed out to validate it, it was purely a nod to "tell us where you got this" form on the net. Posting a chart of data is not the same thing as quoting Sullivan. I just mentioned where I saw the chart and that I found it "slightly interesting".

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