During the campaign last year, we were repeatedly told that an Obama presidency would bring change to Washington. It would be an end to partisan politics. Republicans and Democrats would come together, the nation would no longer be divided, Europe would love us again, and the world would be a better place.

Now, less than 100 days into Obama’s presidency, we see that it’s just not happening that way. It turns out that Obama is the most polarizing president we’ve had in forty years.

For all of his hopes about bipartisanship, Barack Obama has the most polarized early job approval ratings of any president in the past four decades. The 61-point partisan gap in opinions about Obama’s job performance is the result of a combination of high Democratic ratings for the president — 88% job approval among Democrats — and relatively low approval ratings among Republicans (27%).

By comparison, there was a somewhat smaller 51-point partisan gap in views of George W. Bush’s job performance in April 2001, a few months into his first term. At that time, Republican enthusiasm for Bush was comparable to how Democrats feel about Obama today, but there was substantially less criticism from members of the opposition party. Among Democrats, 36% approved of Bush’s job performance in April 2001; that compares with a 27% job approval rating for Obama among Republicans today.

The partisan gap in Bill Clinton’s early days was also substantially smaller than what Obama faces, largely because Democrats were less enthusiastic about Clinton. In early April 1993, 71% of Democrats approved of Clinton’s job performance, which is 17 points lower than Obama’s current job approval among Democrats. Republican ratings of Clinton at that point (26%) are comparable to their current ratings of Obama today (27%).

Of course, I’m sure the libs will say it’s because us conservative hillbilly warmonger redneck Republicans are just out to destroy Obama, surely because we’re racist or something. It couldn’t possibly be because Obama is completely changing everything this country stands for. It couldn’t possibly be because his policies are threatening to bankrupt future generations. It couldn’t possibly be because he’s been going to Europe and trashing America as arrogant, dismissive, and derisive. It couldn’t possibly be any of those things… could it??

Welcome to the new bipartisanship in the age of Obama.