Why is job approval for elected officials asked so often in polls?
Job approval is a question asked in polls for over 50 years, asked about presidents from Harry Truman to Bill Clinton. It is a measure of potential electoral success for an incumbent president (or state and local elected officials) and is useful for trend purposes. Incumbents who fail to win approval from a majority of the public for the job they are doing are very often in trouble on election day. Experience shows presidential job approval has a lot do with how well people think things are going in the country today. High job approval does not mean the office-holder is necessarily held in high, personal esteem. Job approval is just one question which when analyzed in combination with response to other questions gives a good overall picture of how an incumbent is perceived.
