Re: Responses to various threads
Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
One can argue - albeit I ma not sure how convincingly, given Bush jr. - that in the first term popular dissatisfaction may hold presidential power in check due to re-election - bun in the second term? They can pretty much do what they want, or rather whatever is possible given the balance of power among other interest groups. That is why the presidential approval rating that Doug and others diligently cite never cease to amuse me - they carry less weight than, say, Miss America pageant.
You’re forgetting Congress and the punditocracy. If a president’s approval rating is around 40, his agenda will lose support of the legislature and “opinion leaders.” I think that’s what Bartels was getting after, though I do mean to do a follow-up.
Doug