Gallup Poll & How to Conduct a Poll

In light of the NYTimes new poll on public disapprove of Obama, I thought I would share with you the Gallup Poll which provides a tremendous resource for those who want to look at public approval.  Here is Obama's approval ratings since he took office.  Here, though, is the money item.  It allows you to compare any president or presidents to each other.  Simply click on the picture of the presidents you want to compare and a chart will appear.  Then move your cursor over time and little screens will appear telling you what the public approval was.  So above is a comparison to Reagan.  At the same point in his presidency Reagan had 47% approval and Obama has 43%.  Of course what helped Reagan is that in 1983 unemployment was 9.7% (.6% worse than today) and a year later (in the election year) it was a much improved 7.6% when he won 49 states over Mondale.

Next I should say that this is a super resource if you want to discuss with your kids how a poll is conducted as it gives the "n," as well as the demographics and how it was carried out for the above mentioned NYTimes article.