A historical note: We have from time to time referred to the lowest presidential job approval rating in Gallup polling history as 23%, measured in two polls conducted Nov. 11-16, 1951, and Jan. 6-11, 1952, during the Harry Truman administration. As President Bush's ratings have descended to his administration low point of 31% this year (although his ratings are back up some now), the low point in Gallup history has earned heightened interest.
Professor Charles Franklin of the University of Wisconsin recently called to our attention the fact that his research indicated that there was another Gallup Poll during the Truman administration in which the president's approval rating was 22% -- making it the historical Gallup low point. Professor Franklin based his research on the data files held at the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at the University of Connecticut, which show the 22% reading for a Feb. 9-14, 1952, Gallup Poll. The volume Gallup Poll: Public Opinion 1935-1971, which we have used in this instance as the basis for Truman era poll results, reports the Feb. 9-14, 1952, poll result as 25%. We investigated and have arrived at the conclusion that the dataset at Roper -- which also mirrors our online Gallup Brain database -- is the most accurate record of the final results from that particular poll. The 22% figure does appear to be correct.
Why has there been a 25% figure in the Gallup Poll volume here at Gallup for that poll? We don't know for sure. The exact procedures used by Gallup researchers decades ago are not always precisely understood, even by those of us who work here. We do know that from time to time more than one presidential job approval number was released by Gallup -- a preliminary figure used in order to meet publishing deadlines, and then later a final figure based on adding in some late-arriving surveys from around the country (in those days, the interviewing was done in-person and the filled-out questionnaires were physically shipped back to Gallup headquarters in Princeton). That may have been what happened in this instance. (With newer technologies and faster data compilation procedures, such procedures are not necessary today.)
The datasets on file at the Roper Center and in the Gallup Brain are reliable, and in this instance, as noted, the final presidential job approval figure for that Feb. 9-14, 1952, poll does appear to be 22%, making it the lowest on record. We have corrected our records accordingly and have also reviewed all of our other presidential job approval ratings from that era. And we thank Professor Franklin for his vigilance.