(U.S. News & World Report) President Barack Obama, long fiercely defended by Democrats and demonized by Republicans, is on pace to be the most polarizing president in American history, according to Gallup. But that may not be all his fault; it could be a sign of the times.
During Obama’s fifth year in office, 82 percent of Democrats and just 11 percent of Republicans approved of the job he was doing, marking a 71 percent partisan gap, according to a Gallup polling analysis released Thursday. That’s the fourth most polarizing year in Gallup’s records, but down from the 76 percent gap during his fourth year – also his re-election year – which is typically a president’s most polarizing.
But Jeffrey Jones, a polling analyst with Gallup, said the hyper-polarization trend started not with Obama, but with his predecessor, former President George W. Bush.
