Friday, May 1, 2009

Is Obama the most popular politician in history?

To listen to some commentators, particularly the British media, you would never believe that President Obama was not elected by a landslide (compare his results with Reagan's and Nixon's second electionm - they both carried 49 states) and he is not the most popular president in history, as well as the best loved politician in the world, the universe and everything else.

Obama's popularity rating after those famous 100 days is riding at 56 per cent. (One wonders whether these figures were taken before that idiotic performance with the Airforce One aeroplane over New York City and Jersey City.)

The headlines have been amazing. Nobody has ever been this popular. Errm, that is not exactly true. It seems a number of recent presidents clocked in at a higher rate after 100 days, not least the much derided George W. Bush. George Mason University's History News Network has the figures.

Obama is not the worst - he comes above Clinton, who scored 55 per cent at this point of his presidency. In other words, as the Washington Times spells it out, Barack Obama is the second least popular president at the 100 day mark in forty years. So it's all a media hype then, is it?

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