THE PRESIDENCY: Popularity Up

"Do you approve or disapprove of the way Eisenhower is handling his job as President?" In response to this standard Gallup poll question, a nationwide cross section of U.S. citizens contradicted the Democratic image of a declining and increasingly unpopular President. In the Gallup sampling reported this week, 59% approved and 26% disapproved (15% had no opinion).

The results showed a comeback in Ike's popularity since his alltime low in recession-ridden April, when 49% approved and 35% disapproved. Ike's all-time high on the Gallup popularity scale: 79% at the time of the Geneva summit meeting in July 1955, and again at the start of his second term in January 1957.

By comparison, Franklin Roosevelt's Gallup rating ranged from 84% to 34%, Harry Truman's from 87%, soon after he succeeded Roosevelt, to 23% at the scandal-marred, Korea-scarred end of his second term.