By a margin of 2:1 over his nearest competitor, George W. Bush is seen as the worst US president since World War Two. 34% of respondents in a Quinnipac University poll ranked Bush at the bottom of a heap that also includes Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, the elder Bush and Bill Clinton.

Bush garnered a higher percentage than the second and third place finishers combined. Richard Nixon earned the second spot with 17% of the votes, followed by Clinton (16%) and Carter (13%). None of the others garnered more than 4%.

Together, Nixon and Bush secured a majority. The five Republicans who registered — no one chose Dwight Esienhower — racked up 59%; the five Democrats, 35%. 5% of respondents had no opinion. Presumably the missing percentage point represents fractional support for some of the contestants.

I’m a bit surprised Bush didn’t turn in a stronger (i.e., worse) performance. His approval rating hit a new low in the Quinnipac poll (although within the margin of error), and he hit new lows in all but one of the May polls released as of today.

A May CNN/Gallup poll in which some respondents evidently gave 110% shows him earning the approval of 35% and the disapproval of 85%, with 9% undecided.

Clinton ended his term with a 66% approval rating, so presumably the 29% of Quinnipac respondents who split their votes between Clinton and Carter are more or less congruent with the 34% who gave Clinton’s job performance a thumbs down.

In February of 2005, Gallup asked respondents to choose the best president in history. Reagan won out with 20%, followed by Clinton at 15%, with Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt and Kennedy at 14%, 12% and 12% respectively. Bush the younger led the single digit grouping at 5%, tied with … kaffkaff … George Washington. I’d guess Washington will have surpassed Bush the next time the question comes up.

No doubt there will be some jockeying for position among the also-rans in future worst president polls, but in this respect if none other, the Bush legacy seems secure.

Bookmark and Share

Close Bookmark and Share This Page

Save to Browser Favorites / Bookmarks

Ask backflip blinklist BlogBookmark Bloglines BlogMarks Blogsvine BuddyMarks BUMPzee! CiteULike co.mments Connotea del.icio.us

Digg diigo DotNetKicks DropJack dzone Facebook Fark Faves Feed Me Links Friendsite folkd.com Furl Google

Hugg Jamespot Jeqq Kaboodle kirtsy linkaGoGo LinkedIn LinksMarker Ma.gnolia Mister Wong Mixx MySpace MyWeb

Netvouz Newsvine oneview OnlyWire PlugIM Propeller Reddit Rojo Segnalo Shoutwire Simpy Slashdot Sphere

Sphinn Spurl Squidoo StumbleUpon Technorati ThisNext Twitter Webride Windows Live Worlds Movies Yahoo!

Email This to a Friend

Copy HTML: 

 If you like this then please subscribe to the RSS Feed.

Powered by Bookmarkify™

More »

Powered by Bookmarkify™