"No other president's disapproval rating has gone higher than 70 percent. Bush has managed to do that three times so far this year," says CNN polling director Keating Holland. "That means that Bush is now more unpopular than Richard Nixon was when he resigned from office during Watergate with a 66 percent disapproval rating." Before Bush, the record holder for presidential disapproval was Harry Truman, with a 67 percent disapproval rating in January of 1952, his last full year in office. - Thomas Hawk from Bookmarklet

Harsh dude, harsh. ;) - Chris Nixon

I feel safe in predicting that history will be much kinder to him than social media. Much. Nicer. - Mike Lewis from Alert Thingy

W's captures are so unfortunate. He always looks like Curious George. - Mona Nomura

Congress' numbers are worse, but nobody noticed - Robert Hafer

I do have to say that I loved David Letterman's "Great Moments in Presidential Speeches" series that he did on Bush. - Thomas Hawk

No president has provided more comedic material than W. If nothing else, we enter into a wasteland the likes of which we've never seen, one where we'll see the real measure of The Daily Show's writers. How good are they without a 1,000 pounds of raw material daily? I think our national comedy defense is strong and we'll be fine, but it may be rocky for a while :) - Bob M. Montgomery

As long as no more terrorist attacks have occurred during his watch - good to go. - tony

STDs have a higher approval rating that Bush. - Admiral Anika

Isn't the election over? You guys knew that, right? - Gregory Pittman from twhirl

I thought it was over too!! - tony

Are STD's more popular than Democratic Congress too? - tony

It's too bad that congressional approval ratings aren't broken down by party. It's easy for folks to say that Congress's low approval rating is the fault of the majority party, but that logic is at odds with election results where Democrats were re-elected to every post they ran for, while many Republican incumbents lost their seats. - Kevin Fox

@Anika LOL - Costa Walcott

Kevin, rest assured that Democrats in Congress share ratings just as low as the Republicans. The Democrat advancements last Tuesday are due solely to the Obama's coat tails, not to the fact that America thinks they're doing a great job. Proof in point: When the Democrat leadership was speaking several weeks ago on the financial crisis, Wall Street tanked. The minute they shut up, it recovered. That happened every single time they went in front of microphones. Every. Time. - Gregory Pittman from twhirl

Gregory: I'm not sure what you mean. I'd like you to find a single Democrat (or Republican) in Congress who has an approval rating as low as President Bush. Here's a source to get you started: http://www.surveyusa.com/50State... The approval rating of an institution is completely different than the approval rating of its constituent members, and it's overly simplistic to try and brand an institution's low approval rating on a single party. - Kevin Fox

I would even go so far as to suggest that the low approval rating of the US Congress is largely due to its perceived ineffectiveness in challenging or reversing the abusive practices of the Executive office. - Kevin Fox

So they were ineffective in challenging Bush's policies. They're the majority party in both houses and have been for years and they get low ratings because they were ineffective in challenging Bush's policies. That doesn't even come close to approaching logic. - Gregory Pittman

funny how the conversation is being diverted from bush to congress as if they had anything to do with the last 8 shitty years - Cee Bee

...and Truman was one of our great presidents. Nixon was the best Environmental president in 50 years.... and blah blah... proves nothing. Bush did fuck up the loan situation... but popularity polls... make me like him - Noah David Simon

Cee Bee, are you saying they had *nothing* to do with the last 8 years? I hope not, because if you are, you're showing a gross lack of understanding of the American political system. Chris, indeed they have been a no-op Congress but accomplishing the things you suggest here would have been detrimental for America. No doubt we're about to see just how detrimental. - Gregory Pittman from twhirl

I agree that Congress has been ineffective for the last several years, and that it deserves low ratings. I do however disagree with assertions that the low approval ratings are an indictment of the Democratic party. If that were the case, the Democrats wouldn't have drastically solidified their hold on both houses last week, and I don't buy the coat-tails argument. - Kevin Fox

they've been around for two years and like chris white wrote, have pretty much gone along with the bush administration's follies in order to not step on toes. regardless of that, this thread was about bush and his failures until a few of you"party loyalists" tried to flip the issue in order to cloud/avoid the subject - Cee Bee

It'll be interesting to see if Howard Dean's successor will invigorate Congress beyond simply trying to limit GWB's damage. - Kevin Fox

I'm not so sure the Democrats were merely following Obama's coat-tails. Democrats picked up House seats in states that didn't even go for Obama, and in states that did go for Obama, some Democratic candidates won by much higher margins than Obama did. - Victor Ganata

You can't do very much when the minority party makes sure to block you whenever they can, and even if you manage to push something through, there's a veto pen waiting at the other end. - Victor Ganata

Well, no excuses now. You guys have the ball. Dems: Please give us a date you will cease blaming Bush and take some responsibility. I bet we have to wait til the mid term elections. Kind of like a dog chasing a bus. What do you do when you catch it? Tee hee. - Oldengrey (Jay)

January 20, 2009. I may keep blaming Bush/Cheney, for the things that need to be fixed (privacy, civil liberties, Gitmo, Iraq), but I won't blame him for continuing to try and block them. - Kevin Fox

At least he's leaving, the sooner we can move on the better... - Grant Bierman

Odd how GWB is so unpopular and Obama is so popular, when they share so much in common. - ComicList

The comments of Bush supporters and apologists continue to be as empty-headed and substance free as they have been for the last eight years. They simply can't discuss policy issues in an informed and rational way. That is how we got into our current mess and why it is that Bush has pegged the unpopularity meter. - Sean McBride

Hey guys. here's an opportunity to agree on something. Bush was a terrible president, right? We (all) I hope want the best for Obama, because we want the best for our country, agreed? - Rod Bauer from twhirl

We may not agree he was the absolute worst, but there's no disputing the fact that he was terrible. But, unless you've got a crystal ball that actually works, there's no telling what will happen the next two years (until the next midterms.) With the economic disaster, it's not going to be pretty no matter what the government does. Hopefully we'll make to the other side OK. - Victor Ganata

"Ha HA" in my best Nelson voice from the Simpsons - sofarsoShawn

Nixon was the most popular elected president ever. your point is lost on me. check the 1972 election results http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... ...in fact most people during Watergate still liked Nixon. and for good reason. relative to the other people (besides Reagan) in the last fifty years he was a strong leader. - Noah David Simon

Instructive comment - Henry Kissinger once asked Chinese PM Chou En-Lei "what do you think about the repercussions of the French Revolution, in the present day?". Without missing a beat, Chou replied "Too soon to tell" Note - French Revolution began in 1789. - Russell Wagner

exactly @Russell Wagner you are quoting the Nixon admininstration.... hence Nixon is not really a pariah. I'm not justifying Watergate... but with Nixon you are dealing with a man who was a good leader for the most part. if you compare Nixon to W Bush it is not a shock who is more popular. better to compare W with Carter - Noah David Simon

Mohomed, do you have any particular reason for resurrecting this old chestnut? Not complaining, just curious... It's a keeper for sure though :-) - Richard pancakhaus Walker

Just making the point NoahDavidSimon - too soon to tell... - Russell Wagner

I find it ridiculous that you are talking about Bush when Obama's Chas Freeman is in the news. guess what zionist hater!? you lose http://friendfeed.com/e... - Noah David Simon

OMG. A fact! Let's not talk about *that* but instead make specious statements of comparison! Let's shift the conversation to another political body entirely! Too bad they don't track the US approval rating of dictators, huh? Maybe I should try this when I get a performance review. "Nevermind my rating, what about that Angolan dictator!" [edit] Sorry, but it's annoying to see such rationalization. He was one of the most unpopular presidents while in office. Deal with it. - AJ Kohn

"U.S. President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner received failing grades for their efforts to revive the economy from participants in the latest Wall Street Journal forecasting survey." http://friendfeed.com/e... - Noah David Simon

"Yes, free the president from his flacks, fixers and goons -- his posse of smirky smart alecks and provincial rubes, who were shrewd enough to beat the slow, pompous Clintons in the mano-a-mano primaries but who seem like dazed lost lambs in the brave new world of federal legislation and global statesmanship. Heads should be rolling at the White House for the embarrassing series of flubs that have overshadowed President Obama's first seven weeks in office and given the scattered, demoralized Republicans a huge boost toward regrouping and resurrection. (Michelle, please use those fabulous toned arms to butt some heads!)" http://friendfeed.com/e... - Noah David Simon

and you still talking about Bush? where you on the football team in highschool? - Noah David Simon

@NDS: Again. Apples vs. Turtles. Approval of a President by People versus Approval of a President's handling of a topic by a group of economists. These are *not* alike. For the record I'm an avid Obama supporter but I *do* dislike his handling of the economic crisis. And whether you like it or not, Bush *was* unpopular leaving office. No amount of comparison or tangential topics will change that. - AJ Kohn

I'd say when the economics guys says you suck... that is a rather bad sign. Truman was a great president. so was Lincoln. both unpopular. Nixon I mentioned was the most popular... for a while. shows how fleeting pop love is. Robert Scoble was the whale of the Alist. now he is leaving Fast Company. give me the king of the world and I will show you an easy target to harpoon. I didn't vote for Bush or Obama... and yet I found myself supporting many of their least popular initiatives. I supported Iraq... which to me was a government buyout in a sense. and I now support much of the bank bailout. both unpopular moves... and they can not be avoided. Lincoln and Truman knew this sad lesson - Noah David Simon

Good riddance. - TranceMist

"What do you think Bush’s legacy will be? You know, I think the closeness of his administration to events right now and the public perspective on those events and his handling of those events and the outcome—you know, right now, I think, has a mixed result. ’Cause while everyone could scream and jump up and down about the war, you can’t take away from the guy a number of things. One, he didn’t waver in his determination to keep America safe, which has resulted in eight years now without terrorist activity on our soil. He put in place the mechanisms that I think will serve the Obama administration very well, and in fact, as we see, the Obama administration is adopting a lot of Bush policies on the war and the approach for homeland security—including bringing on his secretary of defense. So when people talk about—you know, during the campaign—that John McCain would be a third Bush term? Welcome to the third Bush term, when it comes to national security and foreign affairs." http://men.style.com/gq... - Noah David Simon