PRINCETON, N.J., Jan. 23 (UPI) -- Like George W. Bush, U.S. President Barack Obama divides voters, with a huge partisan gap in his approval ratings, the Gallup Poll said Thursday.
Gallup reported in 2013, Obama's fifth year in office, 82 percent of Democrats and only 11 percent of Republicans approved of his performance. The gap of 71 percentage points is down slightly from 2012 when Obama was running for a second term and the gap was 76 points.
Historically, presidents tend to get approval from their own parties in their fifth year, with Ronald Reagan topping the list at 88 percent among Republicans, Gallup said. The difference is that Dwight Eisenhower, Reagan and Clinton also had approval ratings of at least 30 percent from the other party.
But Gallup said voters, at least those who identify with the two major parties, have become far more partisan, with the presidential approval gap hitting at least 60 percent every year since 2004, when President George W. Bush won re-election.
