Obama Approval Hits Clinton Low

These are trying times for Obama. As the Washington Post reports, people like their health care coverage—unllke the unsatisfactory elderly care situation that led to Medicare. Obama seeks health care changes people worry will hurt, not help.

I’ve been watching Obama’s job approval rating drop through a series of support levels. "RealClearPolitics" tracks the president’s approval rating daily. On June 4th, Obama’s approval rating saw its first-ever dip below 60%. Then on July 9th, for the first time, Obama’s margin of approval over disapproval dropped below 20%. On the same day, the positive rating for Obama + (the Democratic) Congress fell below the two branches’ combined negative rating (Congress has long had a negative rating), sending Obama + Congress together “upside down” for the first time.

So who cares, really?

Well now, Obama has hit a floor that means something. Bill Clinton didn’t have a great second term. The scandal-ridden president delivered peace and prosperity, but his own vice president proved unable to follow him, as the nation searched for new moral leadership (yes, Gore won the 2000 popular vote, though not in his home state of Tennessee).

Yet bad as things were for Clinton in his second term, his job approval rating never went below 54% in the Pew poll, and only once hit 53% in the Gallup poll, giving the two polls a common floor of 54% (53.5% rounds up to 54%).

Today, Obama’s job approval dipped to 54% in the Gallup poll, and also hit an overall average of 54% in the "RealClearPolitics" combined poll.

This means that six months into office, Obama's job approval has already dropped to Clinton’s second-term low point.