Gallup's Frank Newport says Obama is overperforming:
[Newport] pointed out that both the Democrat Bill Clinton and the Republican Reagan dipped into the 30s in their approval ratings during their first terms in office. Both men, like Obama, were facing a tough economy and the low level of voter satisfaction with the overall state of the country that goes with that. And yet: "So far, despite similarly bad economic perceptions, Obama has not fallen into the 30% range," Newport said.
Chait contemplates the mystery. Yes, people, despite the noise machine, remember Obama didn't create this mess. And they do seem still to believe, as I do, that he genuinely wants to turn this country round without splitting it in two. He's still at exactly the same spot that Reagan was at this stage. At this point, however, Reagan had 19 percent Democratic support. Obama currently has 10 percent from Republicans.
If he manages to pull off a Grand Bargain on the debt, and we don't have a second downturn, I think he'll be very hard to beat.
The Dish 