Gallup: Bush Job Approval at 40%

Legacy blog posts President Bush

Gallup reported on their latest national survey today, which shows the Bush job approval rating bumping up to 40% (the Gallup release is free to all for today, to subscribers only after that). 

Charles Franklin plots the Gallup numbers, which closely parallel his regression line, a trend estimate based on all available public polls.  Both now show the Bush job rating at just over 40%.   Thus, looking at all available polls, rather than just one at a time, we can clearly see that the Bush rating has increased significantly since hitting bottom in mid May, but still a good ten points lower than Bush’s ratings in early 2005. 

The Gallup report indicates that the improvement has come mostly from Republicans and independents:

The president’s job approval ratings currently stand at 78% among Republicans, 36% among independents, and lower still among Democrats, at 10%. In early May, Bush’s average support was 68% among Republicans, 26% among independents, and 4% among Democrats.

I did not have time to create a blog-worthy table, but checking the online releases by the Fox poll indicates a similar pattern on their surveys:  They show the Bush approval rating among Republicans rising from 66% in late April and early May to 79% on their most recent survey in late June.   The same Fox surveys show no significant change among Democrats or independents. 

PS:  Alert reader JB notes a minor typo in the Gallup release.  The June 9-11 data adds to 96%.  It appears that a typo turned the 6% for no opinion (as indicated in a release by USA Today) into 2% on the most recent release.  When it comes to proofreading, you just can’t beat MP readers.

Mark Blumenthal

Mark Blumenthal is the principal at MysteryPollster, LLC. With decades of experience in polling using traditional and innovative online methods, he is uniquely positioned to advise survey researchers, progressive organizations and candidates and the public at-large on how to adapt to polling’s ongoing reinvention. He was previously head of election polling at SurveyMonkey, senior polling editor for The Huffington Post, co-founder of Pollster.com and a long-time campaign consultant who conducted and analyzed political polls and focus groups for Democratic party candidates.