BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

We did this a couple of months ago, and I decided, as we are now within four months of election day, to take another look at the polling numbers of former Presidents in their first terms.

As of Sunday afternoon, President Obama’s job approval, according to Gallup, was 46%. His disapproval was also 46%. In the past half-century only George W. Bush has won re-election with an approval score of under 50%.

Let’s go to the chart.

Here’s the list of Presidential approval ratings at approximately the same point in their first terms going back to Lyndon Johnson:

Name/    Year/   Overall Approval/   Individual Approval/  Result

Johnson:     1964     74%     68%   Won
Nixon:          1972     52        61      Won
Ford:             1976     45        48      Lost
Carter:          1980     33        25      Lost
Reagan:        1984     55        56      Won
HW Bush:     1992     32        27      Lost
Clinton:        1996     57        57      Won
GW Bush:     2004     47       39      Won
Obama:         2010     46       41        —

As you can see, being over 50 percent approval in July is a pretty good indicator of success four months down the road. Johnson, Nixon, Reagan and Clinton all cruised to victory in their re-election bids.

— Lyndon Johnson beat Barry Goldwater 486 electoral votes to 52
— Richard Nixon beat George McGovern 520 – 17
— Ronald Reagan similarly nearly ran the table on Walter Mondale 525 – 15
— Bill Clinton beat Bob Dole 379 – 159

However, of those who were under 50 percent approval at this point in their first terms – Ford, Carter, H.W., and G.W. Bush – only George W. survived defeating John Kerry 286 – 251.

Remember the Mullings rule of polling: Treat political polls like we used treat scoring figure skating in the Winter Olympics. We knew the French and the East German judges would cheat so we threw those scores out and whatever was left over was probably an accurate representation of what the skaters had accomplished.

If you are looking at a series of polls, resist the impulse to toss out the poll(s) that show your candidate doing badly. Instead, ignore the best poll for your guy and the best poll for the other guy and whatever is left is probably an accurate representation of the state-of-play when those remaining polls were in the field.

At MSNBC yesterday, studio host Alex Witt asked me if Republicans were worried because Obama is still leading in the polls. I pointed out that nationally he was leading by about 2.7 percentage points – well within the margin of error.

It is the Obama campaign that is worried, because they can’t get any separation from Mitt Romney. The employment figures released Friday were a shock to both the American political and American economic systems.

The polling we’re looking at over the weekend does not take into full account unemployment remaining at 8.2 percent. We’ll see if that becomes a heavier anchor on Obama’s numbers.

If the global economies continue to down-shift over the next four months, it is quite likely that percentage will go higher.

If that is so, then Obama has no choice but to attempt to throw as much mud at Romney as he can. In essence, he will have to run a campaign that is nothing more than a four-month negative ad.

Will that work? Maybe, but not likely.

It would be cognitive dissidence for a huge sector of the electorate who might think Obama has been incompetent, but still think he’s a decent guy. That kind of campaign would do nothing to change their minds about Obama’s incompetence, but might well move supporters toward Romney, or convince them to stay home.

The best Obama will be able to do is to make the case that Romney is too far removed from average Americans to be trusted to do what’s in their best economic interests.

Much as George W.’s campaign did to Sen. John Kerry when they made him look like an effete snob. Not a heavy lift, in that case, by the way.

If Obama decides to, as a former boss used to say, “turn mother’s picture to the wall,” it will indicate the campaign knows that Obama has lost the battle to keep this election from being a referendum on his first term.

Obama’s approval numbers are not determinative, but they do indicate that the hill to re-election may be getting steeper by the day.

Editor’s Note: Rich Galen is former communications director for House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senator Dan Quayle. In 2003-2004, he did a six-month tour of duty in Iraq at the request of the White House engaging in public affairs with the Department of Defense. He also served as executive director of GOPAC and served in the private sector with Electronic Data Systems. Rich is a frequent lecturer and appears often as a political expert on ABC, CNN, Fox and other news outlets.