comparing the rasmussen approval index of obama and trump

rasmussen-approval-index.r

library(tidyverse)
library(rvest)
library(lubridate)
library(ggalt)

obama_url <- "http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/obama_approval_index_history"
trump_url <- "http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/trump_administration/trump_approval_index_history"

index <- list(obama = obama_url, trump = trump_url) %>%
  map_df(~ read_html(.x) %>% 
           html_node(".renderedtable") %>% 
           html_table() %>%
           select(-`Approval Index`),
         .id = "president") %>%
  mutate(
  total_approval = `Total Approve` %>%
    str_extract("\\d+") %>%
    as.integer(),
  date = as.Date(Date, "%d-%b-%y")
    ) %>% 
  select(president, date, total_approval)


# split the data frame into two
obama_index <- index %>%
  filter(president == "obama")
trump_index <- index %>% 
  filter(president == "trump")

# augment obama's dates to match trump's
aug_index <- obama_index %>% 
  mutate(date = date + years(8)) %>% 
  filter(date %>% between(min(trump_index$date), max(trump_index$date))) %>% 
  bind_rows(trump_index)


ggplot(aug_index, aes(date, total_approval, color = president)) +
  geom_xspline() +
  scale_x_date(date_labels = "%b %d", date_breaks = "2 weeks") +
  scale_color_hue(h = c(360, 0) + 15) +
  hrbrthemes::theme_ipsum() +
  labs(
    title = "Rasmussen Presidential Approval Index",
    x = "date (obama: '09, trump: '17)",
    y = "total approval",
    caption = "source: http://www.rasmussenreports.com"
    )  +
  guides(color = guide_legend(override.aes = list(linetype = 0)))

Changed geom_path() + geom_point() to ggalt::geom_xspline():