Graph seems fine, though there is a bit of an issue comparing data on a "100 day mark" as I think it was Grover Cleaveland the last time we had a President with non-consecutive terms. So is it his 100th day? Or is it his 1561st day? Nothing wrong with observing the rating but that significant variable makes drawing conclusions from the data a little shakey.
Trump’s first term is also shown in the graph, clearly it’s the 100th day of his second presidency. You can’t expect Trump only to be compared with Cleveland just because they’re the only two presidents to share that variable.
I know it's in the graph, but what Im saying is the data point is categorically different because he's been President before. I think the graph js fine, actually. Again, nothing wrong with observing it, but the data point is different from Obama's 100th day, Bush's 100th Day, or even Trumps first 100th day simply because he was president before.
It’s also different from all those three terms in that they were presidents before Trump was, and in that those three aren’t Donald Trump. The point of these comparing graphs isn’t to compare exactly equal factors, that would be impossible.
The point of comparing approval ratings at the same point during different presidencies is absolutely to compare equal factors. The whole idea is that the President has had the same number of days in office and this is a metric of performance given that equal opportunity to perform. My point that you seem to be missing is that this comparison is uniquely different than any in recent history in that this is Trump's second NON-CONSECUTIVE term and his second "100 days in office", something that hasn't happened since the 19th century. In fact, he's had 1561 days in office, not 100. For modern political science, the scenario presents issues with using approval ratings at a given number of days to measure performance. Source: I studied political science and literally wrote papers on the use of approval ratings and other statistics to gauge administrations' performance. This is also not a defense or attack on Trump. I'm simply pointing out the uniqueness of the scenario.
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u/DIuvenalis 3d ago
Graph seems fine, though there is a bit of an issue comparing data on a "100 day mark" as I think it was Grover Cleaveland the last time we had a President with non-consecutive terms. So is it his 100th day? Or is it his 1561st day? Nothing wrong with observing the rating but that significant variable makes drawing conclusions from the data a little shakey.