Gallup: Going into 5th ‘State of the Union,’ Obama as popular as Bush

We’re four days out from President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address to Congress and the nation. Is it must-see TV — or have most of Americans tuned out?

Obama just finished his fifth year in office. Frank Newport, editor in chief of the Gallup Poll compares his fifth year in office to that of other U.S. presidents who served more than one term — such as Bush, Clinton, Reagan, Nixon, Johnson and Eisenhower — with results that may surprise you.

One of the great political issues of our time is ideological polarization. New analysis indicates that, while the country remains extremely polarized, it has been worse at previous points in time — namely, two year of the George W. Bush administration.

Speaking of polarizing political topics, preliminary evidence in January is beginning to show what looks like the impact of the Affordable Care Act: The uninsured rate is edging down.

And, believe it or not, two potential 2016 presidential contenders are both Baby Boomers, but at the opposite ends of the generational spectrum — Chris Christie, born in 1962, is among the youngest Boomers, and Hilary Clinton, born in 1947, is among the oldest. Although we often talk about Boomers as a group, their politics range dramatically across their 18-year age spectrum. Actually, the most Democratic of all Boomers are those born in the early to mid 1950s, not the extremes of the age spectrum.

For all the stats, click the speaker icon next to the headline to listen to the interview above.