Obama's Approval Numbers More Polarized than Bush's

A new poll out from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press on President Barack Obama's job performance finds that the president is well on his way to becoming the most polarizing figure in recent U.S. presidential history. The Pew poll measured the partisan gap between Democratic and Republican respondents and finds a whopping 61 percent spread, the largest such gap for a first year president in forty years. President George W. Bush was a uniter in comparison to Obama, as his partisan gap was only 51 percent at the same point in his presidency.

Overall, the poll finds a 59 percent approval rating for Obama among all respondents, down slightly from the highs seen around the time of his inauguration. Eighty-eight percent of Democrats view his job performance favorably, while just 27 percent of Republicans agree.

The result is somewhat surprising given President Obama's self-declared determination to bridge partisan divides in America. One explanation may be seen in the Obama Administration's early actions, which have had a decidedly liberal flavor, and have left little room for compromise with Republicans. On the economic stimulus bill that the president championed, for example, Republican ideas were dismissed by Obama at a White House meeting with a curt, "I won." The result was not one Republican vote for the plan in the House, and only three moderate Republicans supporting the bill in the Senate. Similarly, the budget that the president presented to Congress was chock full of traditional liberal spending priorities, with Republican alternatives getting minimum consideration. It too passed without a single Republican vote.

Pew points out that the gap in partisan approval of presidents' job performance is a long-term trend going back to the early seventies. That may be true. However, the Obama Administration has not helped itself with regard to the president's approval among members of the opposing party. During the campaign, the president pledged to listen to any and all ideas, regardless of wheter they were advanced by Democrats or Republicans. But so far, in practice, the Obama Administration and Congressional Democrats have taken a go-it-alone approach, and it has cost President Obama a little of his image as a post-partisan political figure.