Approval ratings vs. high gas prices

For the New York Times, Ruth Igielnik and Katherine Chui charted presidential approval ratings against gas prices in the United States. The two metrics used to correlate strongly, but it’s grown more noisy over the past decade. That might change back:

Polarization, he said, plays a large role in that change.

“Presidents have fairly unified support from their own party, and unified opposition from the other party, which means they have a higher floor and a lower ceiling,” he said, referring to approval ratings.

Still, the current gas spike could be different. The quick pace with which prices have jumped may be enough to upend that trend.

Gas prices in the U.S. have increased to over $4 per gallon. Here in California, some gas stations are charging over $7 per gallon. Maybe we’ll find out if there’s a threshold for gas prices that lowers the approval floor.