How past presidents have coped with similar domestic strife

FACING high unemployment and lukewarm public approval, President Barack Obama can take heart from history: At the same point in his presidency 28 years ago, Ronald Reagan was saddled with an approval rating much lower than Obama’s is now. And the unemployment rate then was a full percentage point higher.

For Reagan, the economy recovered quickly and strongly, carrying him to re-election in 1984, one of the biggest landslides in US political history. It’s possible Obama could benefit from an equally robust economic revival before Election Day 2012. But expectations are lower this time, because the government has already used up most of its tools to boost the economy.

Recent history suggests a president’s fortunes can turn dramatically, for better or worse, on economic swings from the halfway mark of his first term to the next Election Day. Here are some examples: