Obama Approval Rating Sky-High Among Democrats, Driving 2014 Election Get-Out-Vote Effort

While President Barack Obama’s approval rating remained low in January, the Gallup polling center showed that the president’s dismal numbers are the result largely of the massive difference in how Democrats and Republicans feel about him. In fact, 2013 went down on record as the fourth most politically divided year since the 1950s, when Gallup started keeping track of political polarization.

Perhaps the most important factor in the low Obama approval rating, judging by Gallup data, is the fact that Republicans simply don’t like him. In 2013, only 11 percent of Republicans registered approval of Obama’s job performance — but 82 percent of Democrats approved of the job Obama was doing.

And 2013 wasn’t even the most polarized year of Obama’s presidency. That honor belonged to 2012 when 86 percent of Democrats registered a positive Obama approval rating compared to only one in every 10 Republicans. The 76-point gap was fractions higher than the second-place year, 2004, the fourth year of George W. Bush’s term.

Republicans in 2004 were wild for Bush, with 91 percent approval. Democrats were slightly more charitable to Bush than Republicans are now toward Obama, with 15 percent Democratic approval of Bush’s job performance in 2004.

Of the 10 most polarized years in the nearly 60 years of Gallup data, all of them except two occurred when either Obama or Bush was president.

The only exceptions are Ronald Reagan’s fourth year (89-29 in favor of the GOP, a 60 point gap) in 10th place, and Bill Clinton’s fourth year (85-23 Dem, a 62 point split) in 8th.

Democratic leaders clearly believe that the continued sky-high Obama approval rating among members of their own party offers hope for the 2014 fall congressional elections — if Democrats get out the vote.

As a New York Times report Friday revealed, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has already begun a $60 million, 10-state, 4,000-employee effort known as “The Bannock Street Project,” aimed at getting Democratic voters to the polls.

Groups which are generally responsible for the high Obama approval among Democrats, including single women, minority voters and young voters, traditionally skip a trip to the ballot box in off-year elections. But the Democratic leaders plan to mobilize those voters in targeted districts. A higher than expected voter turnout, they believe, will allow Democrats to hold on to their slim Senate majority, even if the overall low Obama approval rating numbers fail to recover.

The January Obama approval data contained some good news for the president, however. While still struggling, Obama’s approval climbed by almost a full point in January while his disapproval rating dropped by 1.3 points compared to December.

The recovery in his approval rating actually began in the final month of 2013, when Obama gained half a point in his approval rating and his disapproval leveled off. This was after the first day of that month marked the worst day of his entire presidency, as far as approval rating numbers go.

December was also the month that the Healthcare.gov site ironed out most of the technical glitches that plagued it since its October rollout, causing a jump in Obamacare enrollments that has continued into January and, perhaps more significantly, a swing in media coverage from “Obamacare nightmare” stories to “Obamacare success,” helping alter perceptions of the president’s signature legislative achievement.

With Republicans hoping to make Obamacare a central issue in the 2014 election, any success in the new health care program spells bad news for the GOP and good news for Democrats, as it would inevitably result in a healthier Obama approval rating.

[Image via Wikimedia Commons]