New polling from Gallup tracks two notable and unrelated trends. At least I think they are unrelated.
First, President Barack Obama earned a 46.8 percent average approval rating in the three-month period ending July 19. That is essentially unchanged from Gallup’s findings in the previous quarter and above his record-low level from late last year.
As Gallup’s Lydia Saad writes:
Obama is in the company of several former elected presidents who averaged sub-50% approval during their 10th quarters in office.
This includes three former presidents who won re-election—Bill Clinton, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan—and one, Jimmy Carter, who lost.
On the other hand, of the three presidents with exceptionally high average approvals at this stage, George H.W. Bush was ultimately defeated, while Dwight Eisenhower and George W. Bush prevailed.
The story and charts are here.
Also today, Gallup released results of a survey showing wine (35 percent) nearly matches beer (36 percent) in popularity among U.S. drinkers.
Saad writes in her analysis of this poll:
The 36 percent of U.S. drinkers favoring beer in Gallup’s July 7-10 poll ties for the lowest Gallup has recorded for the popular beverage since initiating this measure in 1992. The other low reading came in 2005, at the same time Americans’ preference for wine temporarily surged to 39%. Beer regained a solid lead at the top spot, until this year.
The 35 percent now favoring wine and 23 percent liquor are near the record highs for these beverages, although preferences have generally fluctuated around the current levels since about 2003.
The survey breaks down preferences by age and region. Take a look here.
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