One thousand forty-one days into his presidency, Barack Obama’s approval rating is lower than any other U.S. president in modern history at this point into a first White House term.
At 43 percent, according to Gallup’s daily presidential approval rating tracking poll, Obama’s approval has sunk even below Jimmy Carter’s approval at this point in his presidency. Carter had a 51 percent approval rating during this period.
Carter’s approval rating was on a steep upswing toward the end of his third year in office, rising from 29 percent in the beginning of October 1979 to a peak of 58 percent in January 1980.
This is not the first time Obama’s approval rating has slipped below Carter’s. In the beginning of March, Obama’s approval rating was tied with Carter’s at 47 percent; and from September 2010 through the beginning of January 2011, Obama’s approval rating remained consistently lower than Carter’s at the same point in his presidency.
Obama’s approval rating has yet to sink to the depths that Carter saw during his presidency’s rockiest times, when he hit an all-time low of 28 percent. Obama’s lowest approval rating yet is 38 percent.