Liberal media consultant and political strategist Mark Riley says President Barack Obama's low approval ratings are "nothing new" for presidents at this point in their presidency.
"American presidents have long gone through the same thing," Riley told Ed Berliner on "Midpoint" on
Newsmax TV on Friday.
"I would refer you to 2006, June 2006, which was George W. Bush's second [term] in office," he explained. "His approval numbers during that time were 36, 38, and 37 during the three polls that were taken during the month of June."
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"That's lower than Barack Obama's approval rating at this point," he added. "Not to say that Obama's approval ratings are anything to write home about, but bottom line, these things happen."
A
Bloomberg News poll released Tuesday has Obama with an approval rating of 44 percent. A
CNN/ORC International Poll released Thursday found that 51 percent of those polled have an unfavorable view of the president, which is the same unfavorable rating that former President George W. Bush currently has.
A survey released by Gallup on Thursday found that 51 percent of Americans do not believe Obama "is honest and trustworthy,"
CNSNews.com reported.
Riley does admit that there have been some recent events that may have taken a toll on the president's approval numbers even though he contends that "the economy is what drives a presidential approval rating."
"Now, that's not to say that the VA hasn't hurt him, that's not to say that the Iraq situation will not hurt him because the latest Gallup Poll was taken before all this had started," he explained.
"So it's entirely possible that that's going to hurt him, but I wouldn't place life or death stock in whether or not Barack Obama is going to act based on those approval numbers," Riley added.
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