Obama Polarizing, Yet Diplomatic?

Two polls released today reveal diverging opinions about President Obama’s performance in his early days in office. Obama received high marks for his work on the international stage during his foreign trip; 79 percent of those polled by CNN said that “people in other countries will have a more positive view of the U.S. because of Obama.” Interestingly, the poll did not find that people perceived the president as having won any concrete diplomatic concessions; rather, his gains were in perception. Another poll, released by the Pew Research Center, found that despite all his efforts at bipartisanship, Obama has the “most polarized early job approval ratings of any president in the past four decades.” He’s even more unpopular with Republicans than George W. Bush was with Democrats after roughly three months in office.