The political controversies surrounding Obama’s recent spate of recess appointments made us wonder how President Obama compares to other past presidents and their recess appointments. Looking at a simple bar chart graphing recess appointments since FDR, it’s not surprising to see that current complainants are taking a shortsighted approach to the issue. Click on the chart below to see a full-sized version.
UPDATE: As per some Facebook users’ suggestions, I’ve created a better chart that now controls for length of time in office. The chart below compares the presidents by ratio of days in office to total recess appointments. Quite a difference! Click to see a full-sized version:
(Thanks to Beth at the Senate Historical Office for sending over the data within minutes of my research request — impressive response time!)
The way you have presented the data in graph number two is confusing (and possibly misleading). You should graph the ratio of recess appointments with respect to days in office. You have instead, done the opposite. It would be more congruent with your first chart (where a longer bar means more appointees) if you plotted it the other way than what you have presented.
just a thought. Very cool site, btw.