Looking at the 16 point jump from Obama’s 2008 popular vote and his inauguration week approvals got me wondering if disappointed presidential voters traditionally give a big old Atta Boy to the new president they didn’t want.
So I did a historical search and ranked the results by the size of the Atta Boy, then colored them by party. Note: I ignored second term election/inauguration stats, because I only wanted to see how disappointed voters responded to a relatively unknown new president.
What you’ll see below is that Atta Boys have been highest when a DEMOCRAT won and lowest when a REPUBLICAN won. In other words, disappointed Republicans have been significantly MORE willing to accept and cheer on a new Democrat president than Democrats have been willing to accept and cheer on a new Republican president.
Sources:








I was pondering the +22 for JFK and am wondering how much of that was the slobbering media and how much was the American immigrant gestalt. Obama got a LOT of goodwill because he was the First Black President. Kennedy was the First Catholic President. I think a lot of Americans take real pride in seeing immigrant groups succeed, you know?
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My FOX daily update email has the Real Clear Politics Averages:
Obama Job Approval: Approve 43.4% vs. Disapprove 51.9%
Direction of Country: Right 22.2% vs. Wrong 70.9%
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