Claiming that he was a uniter not a divider President Obama's current job approval rates show the widest disparity of any American President in modern history. The Democrat President's job approval ratings among fellow party members are at 88% according to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. While a majority of Democrats approve of Obama's job performance to date, only 27% of Republicans approve of the President's work as the nation's chief executive.The Pew Research Center observed:
By comparison, there was a somewhat smaller 51-point partisan gap in views of George W. Bush's job performance in April 2001, a few months into his first term. At that time, Republican enthusiasm for Bush was comparable to how Democrats feel about Obama today, but there was substantially less criticism from members of the opposition party. Among Democrats, 36% approved of Bush's job performance in April 2001; that compares with a 27% job approval rating for Obama among Republicans today.
The partisan gap in Bill Clinton's early days was also substantially smaller than what Obama faces, largely because Democrats were less enthusiastic about Clinton. In early April 1993, 71% of Democrats approved of Clinton's job performance, which is 17 points lower than Obama's current job approval among Democrats. Republican ratings of Clinton at that point (26%) are comparable to their current ratings of Obama today (27%).
Lower approval ratings from members of the opposing party than either Bush or Clinton. That's gotta hurt.