Obama As Reagan

The similarities between the presidency of Ronald Reagan and that of Barack Obama are summed up nicely by Charles Franklin at Pollster.

Both enjoyed significant gains for their party in both houses of Congress. Both faced “worst since the depression” economic circumstances. And each in his own very different ways attempted to reshape government in the early months in office.

With a bit more than 10 months of approval data on Obama, we can now make a more meaningful comparison than was possible at the first 100 days look.

The similarity of approval trajectories is striking for Reagan and Obama. Reagan started lower, but since the 3rd month of office the two have moved along quite similar paths.

Of the ten post-war presidents in the chart, Reagan and Obama currently stand as the two lowest at this point in their first term. (Clinton fell lower early, but was recovering at this point before another decline and rise.) Reagan finished as the second lowest just before his midterm in 1982, ahead of only Truman. It happens that the economy under Reagan also bottomed out in November 1982, the worst possible time for the president and his party.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.