Obama Entering White House With High Favorables -- And Bush Leaving With High Disapproval
A new Gallup poll shows that Barack Obama's post-election honeymoon period has already begun, with the president-elect sporting a very high favorable rating of 70%, with only 25% unfavorable. Any bad blood from the messy general election seems to have passed for now, with only a hardcore GOP base registering an unfavorable opinion of him.
George W. Bush, meanwhile, is exiting the White House in pretty bad shape. He has only a 27% job approval rating and a 66% disapproval rating -- the worst of any president who has served out his full term of office in Gallup history. The runners-up are Harry Truman (32%-56%) and Jimmy Carter (34%-55%).
Late Update: The new CNN poll also has some bad news for Bush, with a 76% disapproval in this survey. This would make him even more unpopular than Richard Nixon at the time of the resignation.
Late Late Update: Here's another number in the CNN poll showing just how daunting things are for Obama: An astonishing 83% of the country says things are going badly. On the one hand this could suggest that Obama would have nowhere to go but up in improving people's feelings about the country's direction -- but if he fails to significantly move the numbers after he's sworn in, his own job approval could quickly suffer.
Gee. No one could have anticipated that a president who "presided" over a fraudulent war, a disgrace in the Attorney General's office, an epic natural disaster outdone only by the epic futility of the response to that disaster, an economic downturn that shows no sign of moderating, stagnant wages, creeping unemployment, tainted food sources, skyrocketing energy prices and a stock market in need of serious psychoactive drugs would have such low approval ratings by the time he's ready to leave office.
No one.
November 10, 2008 2:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
and a head in the sand response to the global warming that endangers the health of his daughters' future.
November 10, 2008 2:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Not to mention his having entered office dangling from the most tenuous thread of legitimacy, or his having disgraced the most basic principles of morality, decency and legality by giving quarter to torture. Why would an illegitimate, cretinous war-criminal president-manque possibly be unpopular, under the circumstances?
November 10, 2008 2:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
And lets not forget how he flipped off the couple who were standing beside the road in rural Pennsylvania, the road on which his 2004 campaign bus was traveling. They were holding a sign protesting his environmental policies. W was standing up at the front of the bus next to the driver. He saw their sign and gave them the finger. Another couple standing a short distance from the protesting couple then told them: "You two just got flipped off by the president of the United States!"
His secret service guys aren't gonna be able to block his arrest anywhere in Europe or almost anywhere in South America.
November 10, 2008 3:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Woo!
Still reeling from the election victory - I can only express my satisfaction through graphic design: http://www.cafepress.com/barack_wins
November 10, 2008 5:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
He really looks like a president going out with approvals below 30%, too, IMO.
I guess he finally gets it that he's the most hated president ever.
November 10, 2008 2:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
He's been hedging his bets that history will prove him right. Perhaps in a thousand year....maybe.
November 10, 2008 3:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
"I guess he finally gets it that he's the most hated president ever."
Don't worry, he'll rise above Truman, Nixon and (yes, your beloved)Carter's before inoguration day (they all do once they're lame ducks).
November 10, 2008 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
At least Truman, Carter and Nixon all had the common sense to know when to stop digging.
November 10, 2008 3:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
What's astonishing here - and what we haven't seen since FDR replaced Hoover - is the sharp contrast in popularity. In general, when an incumbent office holder has lost the public's trust, the taint attaches itself to his office, and thus by extension to his replacement. So after Nixon, Ford and Carter were less popular at the time they entered office than presidents had been for the few decades before then. Bush has set historic lows for popularity, and that makes it all the more striking that Obama has managed to make such a favorable first impression upon the American people. (Of course, the lesson of Bush's first term would have to be that favorable approval ratings can be fleeting things.)
November 10, 2008 2:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama probably benefits from the obvious fact that he is, superficially, profoundly different from the current president. Ford and Carter? Not so much.
November 10, 2008 2:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wait a minute - I don't think that was true for Truman to Eisenhower. I haven't looked it up - and will go do that, but I"m thinking that isn't true of that transition.
This time the public is so relieved to see the end of Bush that it doesn't surprise me one bit that the numbers are like this. And I don't think Bush's numbers will have a bearing on the popularity of the office, either.
November 10, 2008 2:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
You're correct - Ike took office at 68%, as Truman exited with 32%. (I'm pretty sure that Ike's 79% was before his second inauguration.) That's not too far off the current 70 vs. 27%.
The parallel, I think, is that both Truman and Bush exited office amidst an incredibly unpopular, seemingly interminable conflict that their successors had credibly promised to end.
November 10, 2008 3:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Did anyone see The Obamas arrive? I love Michelle!
You know that she will be thinking as she walks around the White House, "all of this shit has to go."
I can't wait to see how she remodels the joint.
November 10, 2008 2:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes I did and she is wearing red and looks lovely and I heard that there is a catalog of the furniture that belongs to the White House already and is available for a First Lady - all the historical stuff.
I hope they like Early American. LOL! I think Mr. Tena and I would go nuts, personally.
November 10, 2008 2:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
I predict Michelle will praise the graciousness of Laura Bush.
The furniture, maybe not so much.
November 10, 2008 3:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
She looked amazing! They both do. Can you imagine what must be going through their minds right now?
Oh my God, I am a professional, but I have to admit that I just LOVE seeing the two of them together.
I keep pinching myself...after eight years, intelligence, elegance, class--and yes, both a sense of style and fun (the girls and puppy) will return.
November 10, 2008 3:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Speaking of puppies. . . this is quite OT, but possibly the best web site ever. Puppycam!
http://cdn1.ustream.tv/swf/4/viewer.45.swf?cid=317016
November 10, 2008 3:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Pre-inauguration, Eisnehower's approval was 79%.
November 10, 2008 2:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Is 27/66 Bush's lowest ever? I don't think it is.
Quick! Get me History Rewrite!
November 10, 2008 2:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's not - wasn't he down to 19% a few months ago?
November 10, 2008 2:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Depends on the survey. The lowest Gallup has measured is 25% - I think the claim is that this is the lowest approval Gallup has found for a president as he exits office, not the lowest at any point in the term.
November 10, 2008 3:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah yeah - you're right, we're talking about Gallup.
November 10, 2008 3:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
No...I think that was Congress...but it was 13%.
November 10, 2008 3:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am totally sure that he was down to 19% for awhile a few months ago - I went looking everywhere for Holden's pony when that number came out.
November 10, 2008 3:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Obama Team Seeks to Reverse the ‘Ultimate Bush Position’
http://satiricalpolitical.com/?p=4729
November 10, 2008 3:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Those are remarkable pictures. The Bushes and the Obamas.Every time I think I've finally come to terms with the Obama victory it overwhelms me.
Amazing pictures, for a moment you think a leader and his wife from distant land are recieved at the White House by George and Laura, than you realize it's our President and our First Lady.Our new President and new First Lady.
Remarkable.
November 10, 2008 3:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Love Michelle's dress - it's very becoming.
Why the hell does Laura insist on wearing brown and tan and burnt orange?
Goddamn.
November 10, 2008 3:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
With no shape, looks like a sack.
November 10, 2008 3:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lack of taste.
November 10, 2008 3:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Total - I have yet to see her in anything that had any taste to it at all.
She's now just the white hair short of being Bar.
November 10, 2008 3:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Did Chuck Norris take one too many blows to the head, he is off his rocker.
http://www.eandppub.com/2008/11/chuck-norris-ob.html
November 10, 2008 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Chuck Norris has a syndicated column? What the hell?
November 10, 2008 3:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
so basically if you hate Bush, you love Obama and vice-versa.
I wouldn't read too much into these polls (as much as I would like to). We're all so sick of Bush and the GOP that the pet goat could get 70% approval.
November 10, 2008 4:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good for Obama!!!
November 10, 2008 4:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Those wacky 25-percenters! These are the people who have stuck with Bush/Cheney through it all. Iraq war - turning the corner, freedom's on the march! Katrina - heckuva job! Tax cuts for the rich - God Bless America! Tapping our phones and reading our Email - nothin' to worry about if you're a good American! Unlimited detainment without habeas corpus - can't let the terrorists win! Torture and degradation of prisoners - this is war, ACLU sissies!
Why oh why?
November 10, 2008 5:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Can we fit them all into Alaska? And let them secede?
November 10, 2008 5:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
I remarked on this at Americablog. The only thing lower than Bush's favorables (27%), are Obama's unfavorables (25%). Heh.
November 10, 2008 5:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
LMAO, Fantastic!
November 10, 2008 10:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
w is good man who has been misunderstood. it is too bad all those gore voters in 2000 had to get things off to such a bad start. it was very disrespectful of them and they are the ones who sabotaged his presidency.
November 10, 2008 6:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
we will all miss the calm confidence of his strut.
November 10, 2008 8:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think Obama has earned the high ratings right now as he ran a near perfect campaign that demonstrated his sharp skills and his smart choice of people. His choice of advisers should be even more interesting as we look for smart individuals ready to bring change.
I think George Bush is a lost cause. His failed policies and actions speak for themselves. His failure to bring Osama Bin Laden in after so many years is just one of many failures. Getting into a war where we didn't belong is another. He deserves his low rating. We have suffered the last eight years. We have seen that the Republican theory of "trickle down economics" does not work. Executives have padded their salaries and given themselves unfounded bonuses in excess of billions of dollars. AIG wants more money for bailout and yet they haven't been made to answer to their excessive spending of $400,000 after the first bailout for a "retreat". What other excessive spending have they done? Things are out of control. The economy is out of control.
Now is a time for hope. A time for change. We must hold corporations accountable. And we must get our economy under control.
November 10, 2008 10:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
if gore hadn't been such a sore loser, w. wouldn't have had to attack iraq. that is what messed everything up.
November 11, 2008 7:09 AM | Reply | Permalink