Bush’s New Low: A 19% Approval Rating

Posted on February 21, 2008 by Ryan

A new poll by the American Research Group has pinned the President Bush’s approving rating at 19% - a new low for the President. For comparison, here are some approval ratings of other Presidents towards the end of their terms:

  • Clinton: 65%
  • Reagan: 64%
  • Ford: 53%
  • Carter: 34%
  • Nixon: 24%

Another fact for comparison: at the end of his first term, President’s Bush’s approval rating was about 50%.

Will this signify trouble for the Republicans in the upcoming elections? It doesn’t seem like it would affect the Republican vote, considering McCain has been doing well in the primaries despite his vocal support of the President’s policies. However, it may be an indication of the swing of independent voters, who will be looking for something different than the status quo.

For now, November is still months down the road and it’s unknown exactly how the President will finish up his term and be remembered in the eyes of the American Public. Yet, numbers this low bespeak of larger troubles, ones that may plague the next presidency as well, whether it be Democrat or Republican. Dissatisfaction with the economy, the war, and rising gas prices is not likely to disappear early into 2009.

In fact, it may turn out to be that case that, unlike Bush’s Presidency, no large disaster will confront the nascent President. Rather, he may have to cope with several pre-developed crises instead: environmental, economic, and diplomatic troubles that are starting to loom today. The housing bubble seems to be collapsing, there are large debates are environmental issues, and relations are chilling between Russia and the West. These circumstances are frightening, to say the least, but they also represent an opportunity.

As it stands, power has been shifting between Republicans and Democrats for the past couple decades, with neither party holding a durable majority of control for very long. This is in contrast to the long periods of party dominance in the nation’s past: the long era of Republican popularity around Lincoln’s Presidency, the period of Democrat strength after the new deal, etc. If the next president can resolve the looming crises in a graceful, effective manner, we might see the watershed moment of a new party era.

Single-party dominance of the government may not be a good thing in terms of spending and accountability, but at least it tends to get things done.  President Bush famously refrained from using his veto power for 5 1/2 years during the early part of his Presidency, helping Congress push through all sorts of bills and measures without fear of presidential rebuff.  How will the next President handle such a power?  Wisely, we can hope, if he wants higher than a 19% approval rating.

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22 Responses to “Bush’s New Low: A 19% Approval Rating”

  1. Reading on Walden Bookstore, on February 21st, 2008 at 2:36 am Said:

    This is hard to believe. 19% actually like him.

  2. Lance, on February 21st, 2008 at 6:06 am Said:

    I don’t think I agree with the poll. American Research Group had Ron Paul really high in a lot of their state-by-state primary polls, but he ended up with far less votes.

    Plus this article from Reuters says “Approval ratings for Bush climbed to 34 percent from 31 percent last month, and positive ratings for Congress inched up from 14 percent to a still-low 17 percent.“

  3. dave, on February 21st, 2008 at 9:36 am Said:

    who gives a flying f-bomb? doesn’t matter, middle class is still going to get screwed six ways to Sunday from any asshat in office. I’m pretty damn tired of working my ass off on a daily basis only to see a gigantic chunk of my money that I earned dissappear to either fund some war or somesuch in a dirtbag thirdworld lasndfill, or to give illegal immigrant jose and his family free everything for being an alien. Nothing I love more than waiting in a grocery store line with a pack of lunchmeat and way too much ramen, while some damn lazy ass minority wellfare sucker or “undocumented worker” is buying real honest to jeebus meat with food stamps.

  4. Mike O, on February 21st, 2008 at 9:58 am Said:

    Uhh, Dave; remember it is Congress who votes expenditures and taxation. Of course, they are going along with old George on all of this, so he’ll sign off on the fivefold increase in earmarks over the last few years.

    Meat with food stamps? How about Viagra with Medicaid? As told me by the pharmacist I buy my mother’s $147 eyedrops from that keep her out of the nursing home (she can’t afford them herself on Social Security, and they are not fully covered on drug plans). I shrug it off as just one more piece of insanity in the world.

    But go on being miserble, Dave; you seem to enjoy it. Possibly you could accompany me on my next trip to Africa, if you want to see real misery, not the stuff we gen up here.

  5. woody, on February 21st, 2008 at 11:43 am Said:

    19% seems too high to me. I’d like to see what % of the 19% make more than $150,000 per year. As I see it, only the very wealthy could possibly still be following this buffoon of a President.

  6. Willy, on February 21st, 2008 at 12:17 pm Said:

    19%, what difference does it make? Rampant Federal corruption is either hidden or open and this president is not hiding anything, not even his ignorance. Over 200 years of Federalism has given us illegal taxation, constant wars, tattered constitution, cronyism and big government. Time for the BIG change making Washington irrelevant.

  7. Jolly Roger, on February 21st, 2008 at 1:22 pm Said:

    Lance — Ron Paul ended up with far fewer votes than the poll numbers would suggest because the electronic voting machines are rigged to the max, but then again, these polls are rigged too.
    With Ron Paul out of the race there’s no reason to vote, and in fact, I would be ashamed to be caught waiting on line to vote for any one of these other zionist shills. They should all run for office in Tel Aviv, because that’s who they’re working for.

  8. Christen-Mitchell, on February 21st, 2008 at 4:00 pm Said:

    Not Worst President. Worst American Ever!

  9. McCain Sucks, on February 21st, 2008 at 4:46 pm Said:

    Jolly Roger: I, too, don’t like any of the remaining candidates — but I think saying they’re all the same is overstating things a bit, they do differ in the degree of evilness.

    McCain is a true devil, who actually advertises that he wants to bomb Iran even though there is no valid reason to do so, and who supports all anti-constitution measures taken by Bushitler.
    McCain is Bushitler 2.0, and anyone who doesn’t do everything in his power to stop him can’t complain about the US in the early 21st century ending up being called Nazi America in future history books.

    Obama, on the other hand, while making it to JudicialWatch’s list of the 10 most corrupted politicians in the country, has been far less radical, and has actually signed a pledge to restore the constitution (not that I expect him to live up to that…)

    Clinton is somewhere between those two, probably about on par with her husband (does anyone seriously claim Bill wasn’t better than Bushitler even in the slightest?).

  10. tom, on February 21st, 2008 at 10:36 pm Said:

    I would have expected single digit support for numb nuts.

  11. Bushs New Low: A 19% Approval Rating - darkmesa, on February 22nd, 2008 at 2:02 am Said:

    [...] New Low: A 19% Approval Rating Bushs New Low: A 19% Approval Rating A new poll by the American Research Group has pinned the President Bushs approving rating [...]

  12. びっくり, on February 22nd, 2008 at 3:00 am Said:

    I expect it will go up sharply when he starts bringing troops home. :)

  13. madmonq, on February 22nd, 2008 at 3:19 am Said:

    What’s that you say? His IQ is a 19? Bit generous don’t you think.

  14. Mike O, on February 22nd, 2008 at 7:12 am Said:

    Madmong; and what does that mean about the IQ of everyone who has, to date, been unable to defeat him or his intentions?

  15. Lance, on February 22nd, 2008 at 7:33 am Said:

    As much as I disagree with Bush no one has been able to convince me he is really stupid. He might not be in as deep of thought as, say, Cheney, but he isn’t an idiot.

  16. Tariq Abideen, on February 22nd, 2008 at 7:47 am Said:

    Bush can try his luck to be a percent over Nixon; Call Bin Laden to send his lastest video

  17. Hypocrite?, on February 22nd, 2008 at 11:21 am Said:

    I don’t know if many people noticed, but only 1,100 people were taken in this survey. The randomness could point either conservative or liberal whom both have a majority approving Bush or disapproving Bush.

    They should have asked how conservative or liberal or even what party the people were allocated with and we would see how there was a pattern. Then we could compare that to the national statistics on what part people are associated with. I could assume that the vast majority of the people in this poll were liberal democrats.

  18. jaredude, on February 22nd, 2008 at 11:33 am Said:

    Checkout their margin of error calculator:
    http://americanresearchgroup.com/moe.html

    Given a population size of 330,000,000 Americans and a sample of 1,100, the margin of error is 9.34%

    Nonetheless, just keep watching The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch and spend your $600 check wisely :-D

  19. Karl Rove, on February 22nd, 2008 at 3:10 pm Said:

    The President remains above such criticism - he does God’s work. His war on Terror and freedom will - let us pray - be even half as successful as his war on drugs. Power to the correct people.

  20. uh...mark?, on February 23rd, 2008 at 1:19 am Said:

    Bush’s approval is 19… and

    that’s NOT 19 percent -

    that’s 19 people!

  21. smot, on March 2nd, 2008 at 7:08 pm Said:

    19% is kinda hard to beleive. By my estimates that means around 60 million people think hes doing a good job. Think about it. 60 million people think bush is doing a good job… no way americans are that stupid.

  22. The Longest 321 Days Of My Life… | Fearlesscandor.com: Fighting Political Correctness One Word At A Time!!!, on March 5th, 2008 at 1:03 am Said:

    [...] we enter the final 8 months of his presidency, George Bush has achieved another all new low.  His approval rating has hit 19%, an all time low for any American President.  The economy is in shambles and he is spending his [...]

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