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Visualization of U.S presidents' approval ratings

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Re: Visualization of U.S presidents' approval ratings

#21

Post by mbostock »

xianshou wrote: post #17
rcthompson wrote: post #14

I think there are one too many dimensions to this data. I know they collect statistics on both approval and disapproval, but for the most part approval + disapproval = constant, so I think it would be more informative to simply plot something like (approval - disapproval) on the y-axis and time on the x-axis. Then you could see the trends and compare different presidents without having to watch the animation once for…

Actually, for several of the presidents, approval + disapproval != constant. For example, Obama moves straight right (up on disapproval) for his first 200 days before descending in approval. There seems to be a substantial difference between the effects of actions that anger some (presumably of the opposing party) and those that disappoint all.

There's a good analysis of how to design a visualization that shows both approval and disapproval here:

http://eagereyes.org/blog/2012/embracing-uncertainty-two-lin...

Re: Visualization of U.S presidents' approval ratings

#22

Post by pacomerh »

rorrr wrote: post #12
projectileboy wrote: post #5

Depressing... Watching the consistent motions, I think this says more about the people than it says about their presidents.

Or maybe that certain presidents make certain promises and then consistently break them. Obama has been very disappointing, I had high hopes for him.

You had high hopes, but with the last president not even hopes. It's totally different, what's worse? Cool graph though.

Re: Visualization of U.S presidents' approval ratings

#23

Post by Terretta »

rorrr wrote: post #12
projectileboy wrote: post #5

Depressing... Watching the consistent motions, I think this says more about the people than it says about their presidents.

Or maybe that certain presidents make certain promises and then consistently break them. Obama has been very disappointing, I had high hopes for him.

Read this:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/01/15/andrew-sull...

Re: Visualization of U.S presidents' approval ratings

#25

Post by InclinedPlane »

Terretta wrote: post #23
rorrr wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe that certain presidents make certain promises and then consistently break them. Obama has been very disappointing, I had high hopes for him.

Read this: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/01/15/andrew-sull...

What's Obama's long game on signing NDAA 2012? There's no excuse for that.

Re: Visualization of U.S presidents' approval ratings

#26

Post by ordinary »

greyhill wrote: post #19
joejohnson wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, thus the dependence between the two quantities.

I think it's interesting that at the beginning of the Obama time series, his approval rating remains constant while his disapproval rating steadily increases. Assuming that "Approval + Disapproval = 1%" would lose that information. Maybe it would make more sense to show approval (or disapproval) and undecided?

This seems to be happening with many presidents in their first 200 days. See Johnson, Eisenhower, Kennedy and Bush Sr. for examples. Also check out Nixon, who manages to go up on both metrics for the first 200 days.

The numbers support this: on average, 32% of the population is neutral towards a newly elected president. After 200 days, this has gone down to 19%. The same numbers for approval ratings remain steady: from 64% to 63%, while those for disapproval necessarily go up: from 4% to 18%.

This means that even the people who voted against the winning candidate (always between 40% and 60% of the turnout[0]) are initially mostly neutral towards them. But while the people who voted for him stay loyal for a bit (possible because they don't want to feel they've been deceived), the people who voted against him have no qualms about voicing their disapproval.

I have to admit that this "let's wait and see" attitude was pretty surprising to me. It seems like people refrain from judging a president until after he has actually made policy, as opposed to immediately upon taking office, as I would have expected them to do.

Re: Visualization of U.S presidents' approval ratings

#27

Post by wvenable »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #25
Terretta wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read this: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/01/15/andrew-sull...

What's Obama's long game on signing NDAA 2012? There's no excuse for that.

It's a budget bill; it gets enacted every year to fund the military. It must be signed eventually (and in this case, on the very last day). Blame your entire government for putting things like the infinite detention of citizens inside of a budget bill.

Re: Visualization of U.S presidents' approval ratings

#28

Post by rorrr »

wvenable wrote: post #27
InclinedPlane wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's Obama's long game on signing NDAA 2012? There's no excuse for that.

It's a budget bill; it gets enacted every year to fund the military. It must be signed eventually (and in this case, on the very last day). Blame your entire government for putting things like the infinite detention of citizens inside of a budget bill.

> It's a budget bill

That got to be the stupidest excuse to introduce new horrible laws.

Re: Visualization of U.S presidents' approval ratings

#29

Post by InclinedPlane »

wvenable wrote: post #27
InclinedPlane wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's Obama's long game on signing NDAA 2012? There's no excuse for that.

It's a budget bill; it gets enacted every year to fund the military. It must be signed eventually (and in this case, on the very last day). Blame your entire government for putting things like the infinite detention of citizens inside of a budget bill.

I do blame everyone who had fingerprints on it. Obama was not obliged to sign it. He did.

Re: Visualization of U.S presidents' approval ratings

#30

Post by smcj »

rorrr wrote: post #28
wvenable wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a budget bill; it gets enacted every year to fund the military. It must be signed eventually (and in this case, on the very last day). Blame your entire government for putting things like the infinite detention of citizens inside of a budget bill.

> It's a budget bill That got to be the stupidest excuse to introduce new horrible laws.

Because stopping to pay the soldiers who are deployed in two wars at the other side of the globe is a great alternative.
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