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    [OC] US Presidential Approval Rating
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    [OC] US Presidential Approval Rating


    [OC] US Presidential Approval Rating

    Posted by YakEvery4395

    View 32 Comments

    32 Comments

    2. YakEvery4395 on

      Key events explaining the rises and drops^((a)):

      * Truman early huge drop: end of WW2 patriotism & strike wave of 1945–1946
      * Truman continuous drop: 1950-53 Korean War & 1951 dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur
      * Johnson continuous drop: Vietnam war & ghetto riots
      * Nixon huge drop: 1972 Watergate scandal & 1973 oil crisis & 1973–1975 recession
      * Ford drop: 1974 presidential pardon to Nixon
      * Carter drop: 1979 energy crisis
      * Reagan drop: 1986 Iran–Contra affair
      * Bush rise: 1990-91 Gulf War patriotism
      * Bush huge drop: recession & he instituted new taxes after promising he wouldn’t
      * GW Bush huge rise: 9/11
      * GW Bush continuous drop: 2003 Iraq war & 2005 Hurricane Katrina handling & 2008 financial crisis

      (a) Based on my research, mainly on Wikipedia. No need to say, I’m not an historian, so please feel free to add or correct this list.

    4. Loki-L on

      Someone might look at this and notice the spike for Bush when he invaded Iraq and the other spike for his son when 911 hapened.

      This might lead to totally real Danish terror attacks on Washington DC and a subsequent invasion of Greenland.

      Or Vance might look at the high approval ratings that Johnson started out with and get better ideas.

    5. Crazy__Donkey on

      Clinton is the only one who went up…

      it helps as he ruled in a quiet era, with “peace” around the corner, economic prosperity. funny it all collapsed right as he left office, and the entire world tuned into a spiraling collapse

    12. KatanaDelNacht on

      TL;DR, Ford, Reagan, Clinton, and Obama were some of the best US leaders of the past 100 years given that their ratings improved over time despite a few downturns, likely due to the unpopular policies needed to turn things around. 

    16. qchisq on

      GWB being more unpopular than Trump is legitimately insane to me. Like, he wasn’t good, but he didn’t try to coup the US government

    17. JHock93 on

      I don’t know if this is true and I’m not American, but how much of Obama’s late-term popularity was down to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton being historically unpopular presidential candidates?

      Appreciate there were other factors like a recovered economy after the Great Recession but were people also watching the election like ‘damn… wish he could have a 3rd term’?

    20. 3_man on

      Bill Clinton seems to be the only net positive one – more popular at the end than the beginning.

    22. Bom_Toonen on

      Both Bushes (and very early Truman) are the only ones exceeding 80% at some point…. Interesting

    26. to_glory_we_steer on

      So broadly speaking the median is for a downward trend across the total time measured

    27. surelyearly on

      I only see 2 president’s presented that have a strong upswing towards the end. Every other president seems to just slowly dip down in approval.

    28. k8007 on

      Interesting (albeit unsurprising) 9/11 gave the highest approval rating for any president here. No wonder we get flooded with 9/11 memes online whenever a republican needs a distraction, even on Reddit.

    32. wiztard on

      Would be interesting to see this overlaid with wars and GDP or some other economic measurement.