On the October 11 edition of the Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, Republican strategist Mary Matalin claimed that President Bush's current low approval ratings are “similar” to those of presidents Reagan and Clinton during their second terms. In fact, while Reagan's Gallup poll approval ratings did dip below Bush's most recent Gallup rating of 45 (which is substantially higher than several more recent polls), Clinton's lowest approval rating was substantially higher than Bush's ratings in second-term polls by Gallup, NBC/Wall Street Journal and PRSA/Newsweek.
Bush's current approval ratings versus Clinton and Reagan's second-term lows:
|
George W. Bush |
Bill Clinton |
Ronald Reagan |
|
39 percent October 8-10 |
57 percent March 6-10, April 26-28, and October 25-28, 1997 |
unavailable |
|
40 percent September 29-30 |
52 percent June 10-11, August 12-13, 1999, and April 13-14, 2000 |
unavailable |
|
45 percent Gallup (subscription required) September 26-28 |
53 percent Gallup (subscription required) May 23-24, 1999 |
43 percent March 6-9, 1987 |
From the October 11 edition of The O'Reilly Factor:
O'REILLY: Gas prices? You think that's the big thing driving these numbers down?
MATALIN: I think these numbers that are being reported as so apocalyptic are neither apocalyptic, nor predictive, nor permanent. Presidents Reagan and Clinton had similar numbers in their second term. And I think history went on to receive them quite well.