But that's not quite the correct picture. The top chart shows the average approval rating for the year of 2013 (45.8%), and it's in the neighborhood of the ratings for the three previous years. The presidents number did fall a bit at the end of 2013, hurt primarily by the poor roll-out of the Obamacare program. But those glitches have been fixed and millions of Americans are buying insurance through the program -- and the polls show that the end of the year slide has been halted and his approval numbers are again climbing (with the RealClearPolitics average of all current polls showing his approval rating at 43.7%). I expect, as usual, his numbers will rise again after the State of the Union speech.
When these approval rating polls come out, they can give the impression that his approval is dropping across the country. That is simply not true. The lowest numbers are in the reddest states, and they drag the poll average down. There are many states where the president's numbers remain high (and many of these are the most populous states in the country). The chart below shows the states where the average approval rating for the president in 2013 did NOT show more disapproval than approval. In these states the approval rating was higher than the disapproval rating (except for Texas, where the two figure were the same).