Presidential approval ratings?

Question

Where can I find a website that will have easy to understand information on factors that influence presidential approval ratings and why they do so? I'm not looking for something elaborate, more straightforward, but anything is better than nothing.
I''m not just looking for a what [influences presidential approval], but also a why.

M'kay I think what I want isn't getting across...
I'm looking for a general list of things that influence presidential ratings, not just G.W.Bush, but all presidents. Also, a little bit telling whether the things increase or decrease ratings, and why.

Answer 1

I was having a problem with your question, then I figured it out.

From the way you have worded your question, it's as though you think that figuring out approval ratings is a standard process that works the same way for each president, each with the same factors, and you want to know what those factors are, and how they affect an approval rating.

That's not exactly how it works. It's not like a standard formula, where you plug in a series of numbers or something.

Quite simply it's a poll. Originally implemented by the Gallup company in the 1930's. It's nothing more than a bunch of people getting on the phone, randomly calling people up and asking them if they approve of the president's job.

Well, there's a little more to it than that, but that's pretty close.

You ask about factors, as though it's the same kind of factors for each president. Sort'a like it's a standard exersize that each president goes through, and it's not.

You have to look at each president individually, and see what events, or situations they were in, that affected their approval ratings. Most recenly, President bush had an approval rating of 32% in January. That means that the Gallup people (or others nowadays) contacted a random number of people and asked, "Do you approve of the job President Bush is doing?" and only 32% of the people they contacted answered "Yes."

In this particular instance, I would imagine most of the people said, "No," because of the Iraq war.

On the other hand President nixon had an approval rating of 24% toward the end of his second term (when he resigned) and the reason his approval rating was so low was because most people thought he ordered the watergate burglary, then tried to cover it up.

So you see, there are no standard factors. They are all individual factors that relate to the events and opinions that surround the president at that time.

What the gallup people do is randomly call people up, then ask them general yes or no questions regarding the current president's handling of national issues, or international issues, or even more basic, they simply ask, "Do you approve of president Bush," or whomever is in office at the time.

Now as far as your specific question, the best at describing how the poll works is wikipedia, and I'll give you the link here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Approval_rating

But as far as factors, they are all dependent on the voter's perceptions of the president and the times or events that surrrounded them. You would have to read up on each individual president, as they are all different.

Answer 2

seem at it this way, Bush had an approval score only as severe for the time of his first one hundred days in workplace. After 9/11 his approval score went over 80%, between the optimal in historic past. properly, all of us understand how Bush ended this time period.

Answer 3

Any news station website such as foxnews.com cnn.com etc. The last I saw it was at 23% about 2 weeks ago. HORRIBLE!!!

Answer 4

Its 20 percent or a little less.

Answer 5

usgov.com

Answer 6

CNN