The Wallstreet Journal creates a graph history of Presidential popularity since Truman. A separate graph shows the pivotal events in each presidency.

What I notice is that Presidents with especially high numbers--Bush 41, Bush 43 and Truman, all saw abnormally low numbers as well. There seems to have been a generational pattern in esteem for the office of President. Both Eisenhower and Kennedy had unusually high average ratings throughout their presidencies, spending most of their time between 60-80% approval. That went down significantly with Johnson and stayed down every since, with Presidents spending most of their terms in office between 40-60%.

Mr. Obama starts out with an 80% approval rating, having done nothing except be black. He's in Truman/Bush territory, and the likelihood is that he'll follow the same pattern of sinking into deep unpopularity over the course of his term in office.

That's hard to imagine after witnessing the adoration of the Magi yesterday, but it will undoubtedly happen. How will he react? Democrats aren't used to being unpopular, and I don't think they really know who do deal with it--Jimmy Carter never got over it.