Obama's Popularity Matters More in the Midterms

Worth Clicking: Blasts from the past wound Romney

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March 30, 2009

Obama's Popularity Matters More in the Midterms

Nate Silver built a statistical model that shows a president's approval rating matters more than the economy -- or the popularity of Congress itself -- in determining his party's fate in midterm congressional elections.

According to past trends, Obama will need to sustain an approval rating in the range of 65 percent to avoid losing any ground in the House.

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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March 30, 2009