Rasmussen Report: Is Bush Worst Ever?

[sauronsfinger]

One of my favorite sites is the Rasmussen Report. It features pretty accurate polls from all over the nation covering politics and other subjects. This week they are featuring the results of a poll asking Americans if the current George W. Bush is the worst president of all time. Here is some of it.

41% Say Bush Worst President Ever; 50% Disagree
Tuesday, August 12, 2008 Email to a FriendAdvertisement
Forty-one percent (41%) of Americans say George W. Bush will go down in history as the worst U.S. President ever, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

But 50% of Americans disagree, despite Bush's record low poll numbers on his job performance.
Given the partisan emotions running high in the Bush years and the ongoing presidential campaign, it’s not surprising to find that the results are heavily weighted by the respondents’ political affiliations. For example, only 9% of Republicans rate Bush the worst president ever compared to 69% of Democrats.

By contrast, 85% of Republicans say Bush is not the worst, but only 21% of Democrats agree.
Over a third (37%) of unaffiliated voters rank him as the worst, but 52% of unaffiliateds do not.

During the month of July, 33% of adults nationwide say they approved of the way that Bush is performing his job -- up one point from the all-time low reached in June.

While 61% of Americans overall say Bush has been bad for the Republican Party, only 28% of Republicans themselves agree. On the other hand, 81% of Democrats – and 68% of unaffiliated voters -- rate the president as bad for the GOP.

Similarly, while 41% rate Bush as very conservative, only 24% of self-designated conservatives feel that way, compared to 64% of liberals and 42% of moderates. In fact, nearly one-quarter of conservatives (24%) rate Bush moderate to very liberal.

Just over half of Americans (51%) say Bush has been bad for the conservative movement, a view shared by 37% of conservatives and 60% of both moderates and liberals.

When asked what Bush will be remembered for most, most Americans (63%) say the war in Iraq, followed by his response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks (23%), his handling of the economy (6%) and his nominations to the Supreme Court (2%).

Again, party affiliation speaks volumes. While 73% of Democrats say Bush will be most remembered for the war in Iraq, only 46% of Republicans agree. Thirty-eight percent (38%) of GOP voters think the president will be best remembered for his response to 9/11, a view shared by only 12% of Democrats. Among unaffiliated voters, 66% say the war in Iraq and 22% say the response to 9/11.

Men are slightly more favorable to the president than women. Fifty-two percent (52%) of men say Bush is not the worst president ever, and 48% of women agree. But nearly as many women (43%) say he is the worst, a view shared by only 40% of men.

African-Americans are nearly twice as critical as whites. Sixty percent (60%) of blacks rank Bush as the worst president in U.S. history, but only 36% of whites agree. While just 21% of blacks say Bush is not the worst, over half (55%) of whites feel that way.

Marriage is a factor, too. The majority of married Americans (55%) do not believe Bush is the worst president ever, but 51% of unmarried respondents do.

What do you think?

[Cenedril_Gildinaur]

It's all a matter of opinion, but I do feel that he's among the worst. Considering that historians and I tend to disagree on who is a good or great president, and knowing how I feel about Bush Jr., it is likely that historians will swoon every time Bush Jr. is mentioned. Ok, that's unlikely. He is likly to be rated by them as among the worst.

With few exceptions, those presidents who greatly advance government power are given accolades by historians. The "great presidents" list include token nods to luminaries such as Thomas Jefferson, but aside from the Louisiana Purchase he's very much the exception than the rule. That trend is not always the case, though, because deep down politics really is a really ugly business while politicians are considered successful if they can disguise the ugliness.

Bush completely and utterly failed on that point. He was so blatant about how awful he was that it is impossible to disguise it. It's not that he's personally awful, even though he is for the same reason I consider some of those constantly ranked as best are awful. He's also blatant in his politics, and politics is nasty business. He combines his own personal nastiness with the nastiness of the profession without any masks. Had he been able to put on the pleasant mask that the "successful" presidents did his policy failures might have gotten him an high approval rating instead of a low approval rating.

The tendency among historians to give praise to those who expand government is eclipsed by the tendency among historians to condemn those who reveal the ugliness of politics. Nixon isn't particularly bad overall considering the quality of the company we're rating him against. I think he was a nasty piece of work, but then again so were most of the other 43. But Nixon exposed politics for what it is. He's ranked at the bottom for that.

Bush was even more clumsy than Nixon, so will get a worse rating.

[halplm]

both of those methods of ranking make absolutely no sense whatsoever.

The historical "greatness" of Bush's presidency cannot be known for some time. The result of the Iraq war must be fully concluded/understood, and where that takes the region.

Also, it is now entirely relevant what happens with Russia over the next few years. While the next president will likely get most of the blame/credit in that area, it's Bush's policies and actions that have set up the current world political situation.

[solicitr]

I'm sure Harry Truman would have got similar numbers while in office.

Can *anybody* who remembers the 1970's rationally believe that Shrub, dumb as he is, was remotely as abysmal as Jimmy Carter?

[sauronsfinger]

I certainly cannot defend the presidency of Jimmy Carter. Off the charts levels of inflation, the entire impotence over the hostages in Iran, and other bumblings mark Carter as a failed president.

However, I must say that with both Democratic and Republican ex presidents willing to prostitute themselves for the almight dollar to anyone who can shove enough piles of $100 dollar bills in their direction, Carter has handled himself with more integrity and high ethics than just about any ex-president in history.

[MithLuin]

Carter is/was an ethical man who made a very lousy president (from all accounts that I hear, anyway). He was president when I was born, so I can't really speak from personal experience here . Ronald Reagan was not personally very intelligent/competent, but was still better at the job than his predecessor.

It is difficult to separate judgement of the man as a person, and judgement of the man pertaining strictly to his job. Because part of the job of being President of the US is to be a representative of our country. But I can see liking Carter while deploring his success (or lack thereof) in office.

It was my understanding that the worst president of all time is Grant, because while he may have been a decently good general, he was very naive about how things worked in Washington. He was not himself part of any major scandals (IIRC), but the corruption of the gov't in his time was pretty extreme. Of course, the times were changing, and business was bound to try to buy out politicians at that point, so maybe he doesn't deserve as much blame as he gets for the situation. But he hardly dealt with it well (or even dealt with it at all).

I doubt that many people polled were doing a rational comparison between the current president and Grant or Hoover or even Carter or Nixon when they answered. What the poll guages is current opinion. I seriously doubt that the president who oversaw the stock market crash and the onset of the Great Depression enjoyed much popular support during the latter part of his term, either.

Historical perspective is exactly what we don't have right now. I know that (obviously) Sept. 11th and the war in Iraq will be two of the major issues discussed when George W. Bush's presidency comes up. But I agree that whatever crises the next president faces will color history's perspective on our current president. George W. Bush will not go down in history as a renowned statesman, no. But I would be surprised if he honestly landed dead last. He has quite a bit of competition, there.



The poll question merely reveals current popularity, and it is no shock to anyone that Bush is not terribly popular, nor that he is more unpopular with Democrats than Republicans.