Job Creation and Presidential Approval - How Obama Compares to Bush and Clinton

There is so much more to a president's approval rating than just the rate at which the economy created jobs during his term. His looks, for instance. Or his committing criminal acts, starting wars, giving speeches, or kicking off popular or unpopular programs. The graph below ignores all of that and just plots approval rating at the end of an administration (or, obviously, most recently for Obama) against the average annual job creation rate.

If you draw a line from George W. Bush's low approval rating and low job creation average to Bill Clinton's high approval rating and high job creation average, Obama pretty much lands neatly on that line between them. Judging just from how well the economy did at creating jobs, Carter's approval seems unjustly low and George H. Bush's approval seems unfairly high.

What can you say about America's opinion of Obama? Just based on this simple metric, it seems fair enough, even if the job creation numbers would be closer to what they were under Reagan had he not taken office just as the worst recession in a century was gaining momentum.