rite of passage, longstanding, approval ratings

The NYT leads with figures from a NYT/CBS News poll reporting that 79 percent of Americans are optimistic about Obama's presidency--a sharp contrast to the record-low 22 percent approval rating with which President Bush leaves office.

Despite his political credentials, he proved incapable of breaking a parliamentary deadlock that delayed the selection of a new central bank chief and the renewal of a law allowing Japanese ships to refuel American and other vessels involved in the war in Afghanistan. These setbacks, along with the owlish Mr. Fukuda’s own colorless style, hurt his approval ratings, which dropped below 30 percent in recent polls.

“To be honest, from the beginning, longstanding problems appeared one after the other, and I had to face them,” Mr. Fukuda said at the news conference, which was nationally televised. “Dealing with them worked me to death.”

Disney has a longstanding fan base in Japan. Tokyo Disneyland opened in 1983 as Disney's first theme park outside the United States and visits there have almost become a rite-of-passage for Japanese children.



long-standing Show phonetics
adjective
having existed for a long time:
a long-standing agreement

rite of passage noun [C]
an official ceremony or informal activity which marks an important stage or occasion in a person's life, especially becoming an adult

An approval rating is a polling term which reflects the percent of respondents to an opinion poll who approve of a particular person or program. Most often an approval rating is given to a political figure based on responses to a poll in which a sample of people are asked whether they approve or disapprove of that particular political figure. A typical question might ask:

"Which of the following best describes your opinion of the things President George W. Bush has done: strongly approve, somewhat approve, somewhat disapprove, strongly disapprove, or no opinion/undecided."

Like most surveys that predict public opinion, the approval rating is subjective. Many unscientific approval rating systems exist that skew popular opinion. However, the approval rating is generally accepted as the general opinion of the people.