People across the political spectrum can find something to dislike in the storm of scandals that has plagued Obama over the past week or so. Yet Obama’s approval ratings have remained stable. Why? Nate Silver had a theory:

• The economy is doing better than it has ever done before during Obama’s tenure as President.
• Over the past five years Obama’s approval rating has closely correlated with the state of the economy.
• Thus while the scandals are bringing his approval rating down by a few points, that decline is being counteracted by positivity for Obama due to the state of the economy.

See how Obama’s ratings correlate with the state of the economy, and how the killing of Osama bin Laden can throw off the analysis a little over here.

Source: The New York Times

Via: Slate