[OutOfStep]

To some degree, as a president, you should have low approval ratings while you are in office, you figure that you'll **** off a certain percent of the population with each correct decision you make; and invariably, if you make correct decisions, you should not always offend the same group of people. So with each decision a certain group will dislike you for an entirely new reason.

So I would say the hallmark of a good president is wavering popularity while in office but then overwhelmingly high popularity rating once they've left office and their work can be judged as a whole. Regan would be a good example, fighting stagflation was tough at the time but now he enjoys an approval rating of nearly 80 percent. The only way to have good ratings while in office is to either be a winning war time politician (then people don't care what else happens (Guiliani and FDR for example)) or to be a complete pansy and succumb to the political winds like a tattered flag.

Then again i've been drinkin and grillin which, ironically, leads to either obscene moments of clarity or hilarity...