Americans who self-identify as Republican, and who approve of President Obama's job performance, compose only 3.8% of the American population.
Among the 52.2% of the population that approves of President Obama's job performance, only 7.2% self-identify as Republican.
These numbers come from Pollster.com, which allows readers to examine President Obama's job approval rating by partisan self-identification, and to view the partisan self-identification of the country as a whole.
According to Pollster.com, among all American adults President Obama has a 52.2% approval rating. Further, among all American adults, only 22.8% self-identify as Republican. Finally, among self-identified Republicans, only 16.5% approve of President Obama's performance in office. Simple multiplication of these numbers shows that 3.8% of American adults both approve of President Obama's job performance, and self-identify as Republican. It also shows that President Obama's current coalition of supporters is only 7.2% Republican.
If one looks only at registered and likely voters, the Republican composition of President Obama's current coalition does not increase much. Even then, only 5.8% of the county are both self-identified Republicans and Obama job approvers, and President Obama's coalition is only 11.4% Republican.
By contrast, self-identified Democrats who approve of President Obama are 28.7% of all American adults, and 55.0% of President Obama's current coalition. Among registered and likely voters, Democratic self-identifiers soar to 65.2% of President Obama's coalition.
There are many implications of these numbers, but the primary one is that we are still a partisan, polarized nation, and not just in D.C. To this point, all attempts at bi-partisan, national coalitions have continued to prove futile. That really shouldn't be surprising, given that no presidential candidate or political party one has ever won more than 61.05% of the vote in a national election in about 200 years.
We can complain all we want about the broken promises of politicians, but at this point any voter who believes any politician when that politician says that s/he will bridge the divide between the parties--well, that voter is simply being foolish. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me eight zillion times, shame on me.
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