Rasmussen Reports just published its monthly approval averages for President Obama in 2009 along with its own Approval Index (Strongly Approve – Strongly Disapprove). As a statistician at heart, I felt that a further analysis was warranted. As is seen in the chart below, the percentage of those disapproving opinions who hold a “strongly disapprove” stance has risen from 59% to a very high 77%. That is to say, only 59% of those who disapproved of President Obama’s job performance held a strong disapproval opinion of him in January, while 77% now do.
Similarly, in January, 69% of those who approved of his performance held a “strong approval” opinion. This number has declined dramatically to nearly 56%.
Analysis of Rasmussen Reports Approval Index -- Source Data from Rasmussen Reports
The “Polarization Index” is the weighted difference of [|1-(PSA/A - PSD/D)|], where (more…)
