Gallup: President Obama on Pace To Be Most Polarizing President of Modern Era

Here is something that probably won't surprise you - President Obama, according to Gallup.com, is currently on pace to be the most polarizing US President since at least 1953.

To measure how polarizing a President is, Gallup.com subtracts the approval rating of the President's party (Democrat, in the case of Obama) by the approval rating of the opposing party.

So, in the case of the current President, the approval rating from Democratic supporters has averaged 83% through Obama's first six years in office. The average approval rating for President Obama from Republican supporters, however, has clocked in at just 13% over the same time period. This results in a "party gap" of 70 points (83% - 13%), which is the largest such gap that any President has recorded since 1953 (which is when Gallup began tracking this data). Let's take a look at how other Presidents have compared:

G.W. Bush, 61 points
Clinton, 56 points
Reagan, 52 points
Nixon, 41 points
Eisenhower, 39 points
G.H.W. Bush, 38 points
Kennedy, 35 points
Ford, 31 points
Johnson, 30 points
Carter, 26 points

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President Obama's extremely large "party gap" can be largely attributed to his terrible approval rating with Republicans. 13% is, by far, the lowest opposition approval rating of any President since 1953 - Democrats, for instance, gave George W. Bush an average approval rating of 23% over his eight years in office.

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Things are certainly not trending in the right direction for President Obama when it comes to his "party gap". According to Gallup, President Obama posted a 70 point party gap during his sixth year as President, which is the fifth highest such gap on record.

In short - unless Republican supporters suddenly decide to support President Obama en masse over the next couple of years (which is pretty much impossible), Obama is looking to go down as the most polarizing President of the modern era.

Source: Gallup.com - Obama Approval Ratings Still Historically Polarized

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