Question

in the "AMERICA'S NOISY AND MESSY POLITICS"

1- How does Obama compare political partisanship today with that pf the past?

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Answer 1

As President Obama prepares to leave office, 45 percent of Americans think he'll be remembered as an outstanding or above-average president, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center.

That's the highest average for an outgoing president since Ronald Reagan. But pollsters found a deep partisan divide, with Republicans expressing much less support for Obama's historical record than Democrats.

Obama's job approval rating has climbed to its highest level since just after his re-election, with 58 percent of Americans saying they approve of his performance. An even larger share — 64 percent — say they have a favorable impression of Obama personally. But the president still falls short of the first lady. Michelle Obama is viewed favorably by 72 percent.The president's place in history is anchored by passage of the Affordable Care Act, which 35 percent of survey respondents cite as his most memorable accomplishment. That's a tenuous legacy, though, as President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican Congress have vowed to repeal the law, which extends health insurance to more than 20 million Americans.

An additional 17 percent of respondents say Obama will be most remembered as the first African-American president, while 7 percent point to his efforts to boost the economy. Only 9 percent of those polled say Obama will be most remembered for his foreign policy.

Historical assessments of a president's record often change with the passage of time. But at this point, Obama is viewed as outstanding or above-average by more Americans (45 percent) than Bill Clinton (42 percent), George H.W. Bush (36 percent) and George W. Bush (11 percent) were at the end of their time in office. Reagan had the highest rating among modern presidents — he was viewed as outstanding or above-average by 59 percent.

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In a sign of growing polarization, there's a much wider gulf today between the way Democrats and Republicans rate Obama than there was for past presidents — 71 percent of Democrats or Democratic-leaners say Obama will be remembered as outstanding or above-average. Only 15 percent of Republicans agree.

Bill Clinton's overall rating when he left office was similar, but the partisan gap was less pronounced. Republicans were somewhat more generous in their assessment of Clinton's place in history than they are of Obama's, while Democrats were slightly less so.Barack Obama campaigned for the U.S. presidency on a platform of change. As he prepares to leave office, the country he led for eight years is undeniably different. Profound social, demographic and technological changes have swept across the United States during Obama’s tenure, as have important shifts in government policy and public opinion.

Apple released its first iPhone during Obama’s 2007 campaign, and he announced his vice presidential pick – Joe Biden – on a two-year-old platform called Twitter. Today, use of smartphones and social media has become the norm in U.S. society, not the exception.

The election of the nation’s first black president raised hopes that race relations in the U.S. would improve, especially among black voters. But by 2016, following a spate of high-profile deaths of black Americans during encounters with police and protests by the Black Lives Matter movement and other groups, many Americans – especially blacks – described race relations as generally bad.The U.S. economy is in much better shape now than it was in the aftermath of the Great Recession, which cost millions of Americans their homes and jobs and led Obama to push through a roughly $800 billion stimulus package as one of his first orders of business. Unemployment has plummeted from 10% in late 2009 to below 5% today; the Dow Jones Industrial Average has more than doubled.

But by some measures, the country faces serious economic challenges: A steady hollowing of the middle class, for example, continued during Obama’s presidency, and income inequality reached its highest point since 1928.

Obama’s election quickly elevated America’s image abroad, especially in Europe, where George W. Bush was deeply unpopular following the U.S. invasion of Iraq. In 2009, shortly after Obama took office, residents in many countries expressed a sharp increase in confidence in the ability of the U.S. president to do the right thing in international affairs. While Obama remained largely popular internationally throughout his tenure, there were exceptions, including in Russia and key Muslim nations. And Americans themselves became more wary of international engagement.

Views on some high-profile social issues shifted rapidly. Eight states and the District of Columbia legalized marijuana for recreational purposes, a legal shift accompanied by a striking reversal in public opinion: For the first time on record, a majority of Americans now support legalization of the drug.

As it often does, the Supreme Court settled momentous legal battles during Obama’s tenure, and in 2015, it overturned long-standing bans on same-sex marriage, effectively legalizing such unions nationwide. Even before the court issued its landmark ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, a majority of Americans said for the first time that they favored same-sex marriage.

As the Obama era draws to a close, Pew Research Center looks back on these and other important social, demographic and political shifts that have occurred at home and abroad during the tenure of the 44th president. And we look ahead to some of the trends that could define the tenure of the 45th, Donald Trump.Demographic changes don’t happen quickly. Obama’s presidency is only a chapter in a story that began long before his arrival and will continue long after his departure. Even so, the U.S. of today differs in some significant ways from the U.S. of 2008.Millennials are approaching Baby Boomers as the nation’s largest living adult generation and as the largest generation of eligible voters.

The nation’s growing diversity has become more evident, too. In 2013, for the first time, the majority of newborn babies in the U.S. were racial or ethnic minorities. The same year, a record-high 12% of newlyweds married someone of a different race.

The November electorate was the country’s most racially and ethnically diverse ever. Nearly one-in-three eligible voters on Election Day were Hispanic, black, Asian or another racial or ethnic minority, reflecting a steady rise since 2008. Strong growth in the number of Hispanic eligible voters, in particular U.S.-born youth, drove much of this change. Indeed, for the first time, the Hispanic share of the electorate is now on par with the black share.

While illegal immigration served as a flashpoint in the tumultuous campaign to succeed Obama, there has been little change in the number of unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S. since 2009. And for the first time since the 1940s, more Mexican immigrants – both legal and unauthorized – have returned to Mexico from the U.S. than have entered.

When it comes to the nation’s religious identity, the biggest trend during Obama’s presidency is the rise of those who claim no religion at all. Those who self-identify as atheists or agnostics, as well as those who say their religion is “nothing in particular,” now make up nearly a quarter of the U.S. adult population, up from 16% in 2007.

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