Obama More Popular Than Ever After First 100 Days
According to the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll, his approval rating is a robust 69%. On the torture issue Americans are about evenly split, overall, on whether torture is ever justified, on whether Pres. Obama was right to release the OLC torture memos, and on whether a formal investigation is called for. However, as you might expect, that breaks down strongly along partisan lines:
Barely more than half of all poll respondents back Obama’s April 16 decision to release the memos specifying how and when to employ specific interrogation techniques. A third “strongly oppose” that decision, about as many as are solidly behind it. Three-quarters of Democrats said they approve of the action, while 74 percent of Republicans are opposed; independents split 50 to 46 percent in favor of the decision.
[…]
Americans also split about evenly on whether the new administration should investigate whether the kind of treatment meted out to terrorism suspects under the Bush administration broke laws, with 51 percent in favor of such inquiries and 47 percent in opposition. About seven in 10 Democrats support such action; a similar proportion of Republicans opposes it. …
Obama’s favorability rating, which is a measure of personal popularity as opposed to job approval, is at a sky-high 72%. That’s “…about double Bush’s favorability rating when he left office in January (37 percent) and above where Bill Clinton’s was at this stage in 1993 (59 percent).”
Naturally, the apologists for torture on the far right will seize on the lukewarm support for investigating and possibly prosecuting Bush administration officials for war crimes, to make their case that the American people “don’t support” such action. But that is neither an accurate nor a fair reading of the results: Americans, overall, have mixed feelings. They are torn, more than opposed. And as this Daily Kos diarist points out, “the popular and persuasive Obama has not made his case yet for what he’s decided to do, let alone actually decide.”
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Liberty Street 
April 26, 2009 at 4:49 pm
According to arguably the most unbiased polling source named Rasmussen Reports, http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/obama_approval_index_history
Obama, who started with a Job Approval Index of 30 on Jan 22, 2009 has steadily trended downward in approval…
The all time low of the Index is 2 so far… today’s Job Approval Index is the value 3.
The index is the difference between “Strongly Approve” and “Strongly Disapprove”
When the index reaches 0 there will be an equal value of “Strongly Approve” and “Strongly Disapprove.”
April 26, 2009 at 5:47 pm
Do the math. Some of the numbers on those polls just can’t add up. Tea parties, protests in the streets, and he’s popular huh?
And as for those memos, did you check the NY Times? Obama had them rewritten to suit his agenda.