Obama 'Most Polarizing' President in History: Report

(Newsroom America) -- President Obama campaigned and won in 2008 on a message of uniting the country, but a summary of polls over the course of his first three years in office tell a different story - he has become the most polarizing president in the nation's history.

The Washington Post reported that, for 2011, an average of 80 percent of Democrats approved of Obama's job performance, according to a survey of Gallup polls, compared with 12 percent of Republicans. That results in a 68-point gap, the widest ever, and larger than a 59-point gap for George W. Bush in 2007.

"In 2010, the partisan gap between how Obama was viewed by Democrats versus Republicans stood at 68 percent; in 2009, it was 65 percent. Both were the highest marks ever for a president’s second and first years in office, respectively," the Post reported.

The paper said that, judging by the results from the past two presidential administrations, the country is splintering along partisan lines. That, political analysts have said, will make it increasingly harder to govern.

The analysis of the Gallup data bear that out. While it may be easy to conclude, based on his numbers, that Obama has failed to unite the country as he promised, seven of the 10 widest partisan divides have come since 2004.

That statistic "suggests that the idea of erasing the partisan gap is simply impossible, as political polarization is rising rapidly," the Post said.

"Obama’s ratings have been consistently among the most polarized for a president in the last 60 years," says Jeffrey Jones, an analyst at Gallup.

"That may not be a reflection on Obama himself as much as on the current political environment in the United States, because Obama’s immediate predecessor, Bush, had similarly polarized ratings, particularly in the latter stages of his presidency after the rally in support from the 9/11 terror attacks faded," Jones said.

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