President Bush Leaving Office More Unpoular Than Nixon

[Lemur]

Surely he should've had a higher unfavorable rating than that, given he abused his position even worse than ol' Georgie-boy did -- and with less excuse too.

Hmm, not sure I can agree. Nixon never ordered that prisoners be tortured. And he never suspended habeas corpus. And he didn't actually start any wars. I think he was a worse President, but you can't argue that he abused his position more than Bush 43.

did they have these kind of polls before the civil war? because then i think Buchanan takes the cake. i mean, the guy did NOTHING to stop the civil war, then left it all to lincoln, who did a darn good job at it.

Yeah, I think a lot of people would agree on James Buchanan as a top contender for Worst President Ever. Failing to stop a civil war, or even to apply the brakes effectively ... that's hard to top.

[Hooahguy]

anyhow, maybe something will come up and bush actually does it RIGHT and his ratings goes thru the roof.
you never know.

[Mikeus Caesar]

anyhow, maybe something will come up and bush actually does it RIGHT and his ratings goes thru the roof.
you never know.

Hahah, yeah sure, and a black guy will be elected president....

Oh, wait.

[Spino]

I think Bush's approval rating is as much a reflection of the times as it is his own incompetency. This is not to say he doesn't deserve it but I think people are a tad too eager to blame him for things beyond his control, much in the same way they were a tad too eager to think he was doing a great job once we reached Baghdad. Furthermore it's painfully obvious Bush is getting blamed for crap he didn't cause, like the mortgage meltdown crisis and the legacy of the economic abomination called a 'subprime loan'. On the other hand blaming the president during bad economic times is pretty standard. Anyone with a modicum of knowledge as to how our government works knows Congress is the real root of the problem and the source of all solutions. Since the average idiot knows nothing about how our government works they immediately place the blame at the feet of our symbolic alpha.

There is an unprecedented level of disgust for our government in general. The media is not giving enough air time to the fact that Congress' approval rating is still far below the president's. I would not be surprised if Congress' single digit/low double digit approval rating is an infamous record in its own right.

Nixon was a naughty boy for sure, but politically motivated dirty tricks and criminal acts are nothing new and at the time I'm sure the average American measured that against his handling of the Vietnam War, going to China, etc. Basically Nixon had one terrible negative which were measured against a slew of positive ones. Bush however had a few positive accomplishments and a slew of negative ones.

[Marshal Murat]

I would think that considering the level of unpopularity connected to Bush is only because of what Spino said. He is being blamed for some decisions that weren't his. It isn't to say he isn't unpopular or the best president, but he isn't the worst president. If anything, he'll probably come out on top, somewhat akin to Woodrow Wilson. See below link

1920 U.S. Election
If you read the article, you'll realize how unpopular the Democrats were across the country, and how badly Wilson was hated.

Harding's victory remains the largest popular-vote percentage margin (26.2%), 60.3% to 34.1%, since the election of 1820.

and

Warren Harding's main campaign slogan was a "return to normalcy", playing upon the weariness of the American public after the social upheaval of the Progressive Era. Additionally, World War I and the Treaty of Versailles proved deeply unpopular, causing a reaction against Wilson who had pushed especially hard for the latter.

Wilson involved the US in numerous wars from the Philippines to Latin America, and into Europe. He made almost everyone unhappy, and persecuted hundreds with Palmer raids on "Communists" and "Anti-Espionage" acts that took away more rights than Bush has ever taken away. I wouldn't be surprised if he did authorize alot of torture. He's also the first president to segregate the bureaucracy, forcing blacks out of government positions.

All in all, Bush isn't soooo bad. But he is pretty bad.