After studying public opinion for many years, I think I have a fairly good understanding of what shapes the typical American’s political views. There is, however, one topic that has me flummoxed: why so many Americans still hold rosy opinions about Barack Obama as the president and as a person.
Pollingreport.com posted the latest polls by about a dozen organizations plumbing Americans’ recent opinions about Obama’s job performance. Most major poll results showed approval of his job performance averaged 45-46%. Disapproval averaged two or three percentage points higher. A CNN/ORC poll conducted June 26-28, however, showed his job approval at 50% while 47% disapproved. The Gallup poll’s daily tracking report for July 14, 2015 showed Obama’s job performance rating at 46% approval vs. 49% disapproval. (Approval of Obama’s job performance will probably increase following the deal with Iran.)
The same organizations’ recent polls showed positive perceptions of Obama as a person frequently exceed 50%. (His reputation for honesty dipped when it was revealed that he lied to sell Obamacare, but has since recovered.)
What’s difficult to understand about this is that when the same organizations plumb opinions about topics -- such as the country’s direction, perceptions of economic conditions, views of U.S. influence abroad, etc. -- that correlate robustly with presidential job approval, the results are usually abysmal, and ought negatively to affect dispositions about Obama. (When George W. Bush was president, for example, abysmal opinions on these issues drove his job approval ratings into the gutter.)
This essay attempts to comprehend why, despite his policy failures at home and abroad, scandals, and lies, many Americans continue to approve of Obama’s job performance and regard him favorably as a person. At least five major factors seem to play a part: (1) Americans’ views of the presidency; (2) Obama’s racial make-up; (3) his party affiliation; (4) the mainstream media’s (MSM’s) bias on his behalf; and (5) Americans’ tendency to accord very low priority to politics.
No one can fully appreciate opinions about Obama unless he/she understands Americans’ perceptions of the presidential office. Given the topic’s importance, it is not surprising that a large body of research (by scholars, journalists, politicians, and lay-persons) exists detailing the public’s views of the presidency. One could easily get lost in the minutiae these studies have produced.
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