claim: poll results from the past 35 years show that state of the union speeches "do not move" presidential approval numbers.
author: matthew dowd
evidence_1: jan 12, 2016 ... perhaps no measure better captures the public's sentiment toward the president  than job approval. it dates back to the earliest days of public opinion polling,  when george gallup asked about franklin d. roosevelt starting in the 1930s: “ do you approve or disapprove of the way ____ is handling his job as ...
evidence_2: jan 29, 2014 ... in 2013, 70 percent of americans said policies on guns would move the country  in the right direction, up 9 points from before the speech. those efforts largely  stalled. state of the union addresses historically have little impact on presidential  approval ratings. obama's numbers last year remained virtually ...
evidence_3: feb 17, 2017 ... lyndon johnson delivering his state of the union address in january 1968. ...  after one month, presidents average around a 60 percent approval rating. ...  lyndon johnson had already decided not to run for re-election, and his approval  rating dropped beneath 40 percent, with a differential of minus 18, ...
evidence_4: 4 days ago ... the illegal immigrant who shot 32-year-old kate steinle was found not guilty of  murder last week by a san francisco jury, leaving many to complain that ....  wonder how we come up with our job approval ratings for the president since  they often don't show as dramatic a change as some other pollsters do.
evidence_5: jun 7, 2004 ... reagan's job approval ratings in the first years of his term were hurt by the bad  economy, and the last years of his administration were marred by the negative ...  his ratings moved back above 50% by november 1983 -- not only because the  economy was picking up, but also in part as a result of rally effects ...