President Barack Obama is a polarizing figure. President George W. Bush was a polarizing figure. But the circumstances in the final year in office for these two presidents are very different.
A new poll finds that Obama’s approval rating is now 50 percent, the highest since 2013 – a rare increase in popularity for a president who has just months left in office. In comparison, Bush’s job approval was at just 32 percent in March 2008.
Obama is also far more popular than Congress. Only 13 percent of Americans approve of the job Congress is performing on their behalf, according to a Gallup survey released Wednesday. That’s largely unchanged from the previous Gallup polling numbers.
Approval of Congress has been hovering between 11 percent and 16 percent since August and has only hit 20 percent or higher three times since 2012, Gallup reported.
The record low of 9 percent occurred in November 2013 following the Ted Cruz-led federal government shutdown.
