April D. Ryan

On the Shirley Sherrod controversy, I contacted President Obama’s Senior advisor Valarie Jarrett via email. Ms. Jarrett acknowledges she and the President did indeed discuss the Sherrod issue. Jarrett would not give details accept that the President did try unsuccessfully to call Mrs. Sherrod Wed night.   The next day, Thursday at 12:35pm Eastern, President Obama, in his private office, held a seven minute phone conversation with Mrs. Sherrod. During the conversation, President Obama told Ms. Sherrod that this misfortune can present an opportunity for her to continue her hard work on behalf of those in need, and he hopes that she will do so. Robert gibbs white house press secretary says the president was not lobbying her to take her job back.   Robert Gibbs White House Press Secretary says the call was not about the President lobbying her to take the job. The white House feels it is her decision to make.

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Two new polls out this week show that both former President Bill Clinton and First Lady Michelle Obama are enjoying higher favorability ratings than President Obama, himself.

A Gallup poll released on Thursday indicates that 61 percent of Americans say they have a favorable

The Huffington Post | Eleni Angelides First Posted: 07-22-10 01:27 PM | Updated: 07-22-10 01:27 PM

Read More: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Bill Clinton Poll, Michelle Obama, Michelle Obama Poll, Obama Poll, Politics News

Two new polls out this week show that both former President Bill Clinton and First Lady Michelle Obama are enjoying higher favorability ratings than President Obama, himself.

A Gallup poll released on Thursday indicates that 61 percent of Americans say they have a favorable opinion of Clinton while 52 percent viewed Obama in a favorable light.

CNN reports that this is the first time in Gallup polling that Clinton’s favorability rating significantly exceeded Obama’s.

Meanwhile, Michelle Obama continues to hold higher favorability ratings than her husband, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday.

Fifty-five percent of Americans view Mrs. Obama favorably compared to 49 percent who have a favorable view of the president — his lowest ratings since taking office in 2009.

Despite the First Lady’s many public appearances the poll found that 23 percent of Americans still said they had not heard enough about Mrs. Obama in order to have an opinion.
The Gallup poll was conducted July 8-11, with 1,020 adults and had a 4 percentage point margin of error. Quinnipiac University conducted its poll July 13-19, 2010 with 2,181 registered It had a 2.1 percentage point margin of error.