The low approval ratings of President Clinton were partly due to an American public withholding judgment on his presidency. Unlike President Obama, Clinton had been elected with a mere plurality (43%) of the vote. Clinton’s disapproval ratings peaked at 49%. In 1996, he was again elected with a mere plurality (49%) of the vote.FDR got a majority of the popular vote in 1944. LBJ did it in 1964. Obama got just over a majority of votes cast (the minor party candidates pooled just over 1.2 per cent of the popular vote), a slightly better showing than Jimmy Carter, who (it sez here) got a shade over 50 per cent in 1976 (the counts vary, but the most complete I could find shows "Clean Gene" McCarthy with over 700K votes, and 810K to all other minor candidates combined; LaRouche for example polled a little over 40K; also, this more complete info shaves 16K votes off McCarthy). JFK didn't quite get there, and Clinton of course enjoyed Perot's major (millions of votes) showings in 1992 and 1996, which greatly helped him reach his two minority terms as president.
Whoops, sorry, neglected to remove you from the “to” box. [blush]