Approval ratings seem to be a commonly-used way to compare Presidents and their administrations. With that in mind, the Wall Street Journal has a chart that compares how approval ratings for each President since Truman have fluctuated over the course of each President’s term:

The WSJ article also has detailed charts for each President and major events during their presidency that influenced their ratings. Two results that particularly struck me are that the biggest dropoff from highest approval ratings to their lowest for a single President are for Harry Truman. I’m not an expert on his presidency, but I always had the impression that he was a relatively popular President.

The second interesting result is that the only President who had a higher approval rating at the end of his term than at the start was Bill Clinton. That’s a distinction that not even Ronald Reagan can claim. I guess Slick Willy was a little more popular than many conservatives give him credit for.