There's a tendency in the media to look simply at polling trends -- Obama is lower this week than he was last week -- rather than polling context. Gallup, though, provides a nice chart showing Obama has higher approval ratings than either of his predecessors did at this point. 
It's unclear what exactly this translates into, though. Certainly not Republican support. The GOP was unified in opposition when Obama's favorables were hovering near 70. This possibly unifies Democratic legislators -- Blue Dogs and so forth -- but not on controversial measures like cap and trade. And Obama himself isn't up for reelection for another 3+ years. There are probably some smart political scientists who have quantified this already, but it certainly seems to me that mild changes in off-year presidential approval ratings are fairly meaningless. Yet here I am posting on them.
It's unclear what exactly this translates into, though. Certainly not Republican support. The GOP was unified in opposition when Obama's favorables were hovering near 70. This possibly unifies Democratic legislators -- Blue Dogs and so forth -- but not on controversial measures like cap and trade. And Obama himself isn't up for reelection for another 3+ years. There are probably some smart political scientists who have quantified this already, but it certainly seems to me that mild changes in off-year presidential approval ratings are fairly meaningless. Yet here I am posting on them. 
