The worst of the post-WWII era

June 1, 2006

Sean Wilentz thinks the current occupant of the Oval Office may be the [tag]worst [/tag][tag]president [/tag]in American [tag]history[/tag], but as far as the electorate is concerned, Bush is at least the worst of the post-WWII era.

Strong Democratic sentiment pushes President George W. Bush to the top of the list when American voters pick the worst U.S. President in the last 61 years. Bush is named by 34 percent of voters, followed by Richard Nixon at 17 percent and Bill Clinton at 16 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today. Leading the list for best President since 1945 is Ronald Reagan with 28 percent, and Clinton with 25 percent.

President Bush is ranked worst by 56 percent of Democrats, 35 percent of independent voters and 7 percent of Republicans, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds. Best ranking for Reagan comes from 56 percent of Republicans, 7 percent of Democrats and 25 percent of independent voters. Among American voters 18 – 29 years old, Clinton leads the “best” list with 40 percent.

Of the 11 presidents of the modern era, the top five, according to respondents in this [tag]Quinnipiac [/tag][tag]poll[/tag], were [tag]Reagan [/tag](28%), [tag]Clinton [/tag](25%), [tag]Kennedy [/tag](18%), [tag]Truman [/tag](7%), and [tag]Eisenhower [/tag](5%). The bottom five: George W. Bush (34%), [tag]Nixon [/tag](17%), Clinton (16%), [tag]Carter [/tag](13%), and [tag]LBJ [/tag](4%).

For what it’s worth, Reagan seems to have finished first in part because Dems split their votes between Clinton, Truman, and [tag]JFK[/tag], while Republicans didn’t have any other modern presidents they’re particularly proud of. This was a partisan exercise — and there’s no conservative campaign to get monuments in every state named after Ford or Bush Sr.

Also, I was a little suprised only 56% of Dems think Bush is the worst of the era. Nixon clearly siphoned off a lot of votes (18%), but I would have guessed GWB did even worse.

The truth is, polls like this don’t mean much; they’re just a fun diversion. That said, I’m still glad to see Bush come out on top, or at the bottom, depending on how you look at it.

When it comes to Bush being on Top or Bottom on Jeff Gannon can answer that!!!

  • With global warming and bin Laden….
    the world needed an honest, thoughtful president.

    What the world got was Bush.

    There can be no argument: WORST. EVER.

  • At least Nixon had some accomplishments – such as the EPA and OSHA. Bush has The do not call list and…..ummm….Well, he has The do not call list to his credit. As grateful as I am for that, it’s a fairly piddling accomplishment for 5 years – with his own party also controlling congress.
    Worst. President. Ever.

  • With the exceptions of Ford (unelected) and Ike (and Ike had some truly horrible but understandable foreign policy misteps), Republican presidents have been pretty awful over the past 60 years. Reagan was a congenial, likeable guy, but the atrocities commited in El Salvador and Honduras with the active support of his administration were criminal (weren’t there like 17 or 19 felony indictments of senior Reagan WH officials)? HW Bush was good with foreign policy but was up to his eyeballs in the Reagan “Iranian arms-for-hostages” scandal and was plain lousy on domestic issues. No need to discuss Nixon. OSHA and EPA were driven by Congress. He did open up China which was great for Walmart. 😉

  • Polls like this are nothing more than beauty pageants. Anyone’s presidency is, ipso facto, multidimensional; they cannot be reduced to “best in show”.

    If LBJ hadn’t squandered his office in the vain pursuit of “nailing that coonskin to the wall” (i.e., winning in the Vietnam War he lied us into at incredible cost in lives lost and lived) I think he’d top everyone’s list. He did after all, in a partial term in office, cut the poverty rate in half.

    I think someday Reagan will be seen for the genial fraud he was (not the least of his actions being the traitorous Iran-Contra affair and making a deal with Iran to hold the hostages long enough to humiliate Carter). Nixon had more against him than the otherwise trivial Watergate affair, but the press ignored all that then as it continues to do.

    With his first act in office, Bill “Don’t ask, don’t tell” Clinton proved that, in addition to being charming, he was a very clever triangulator and prevaricator. Monica is long gone now, but the taint cost us in 2000 (no Gore, way too much Bush), and DADT continues to this day.

    The devil – certainly the truth – lies in the details, and polls like this are about as broad-brush as you can get.

  • “Iran/Contra” … thanks Ed. I couldn’t for the life of me remember the name of the scandal … These brain farts get more disturbing as I get older.

  • I think it’s very telling, and I can’t brush this off. Only 56% of the Democrats believe Bush is the worst in the last 61 years. It should be 100%. It tells me the public is simply not paying much attention. I’ve thought for a long time now that Bush’s low poll numbers are very soft, and this certainly confirms that. There’s no outrage from the American people or the Democratic leadership about this administration. Their dissatisfaction doesn’t seem to go any further than a passive reaction when the pollsters call. I have a very bad feeling about November.

    I attribute much of the public apathy to the fecklessness of the Democrats. If they don’t seem much concerned about Bush, why should they be?

    We shall see. I sure hope I’m wrong. It’ll all come out in November. I see the Republicans maintaining both houses.

  • Well, doesn’t anyone find it ironic that the choice for “best” President was the one with Alzheimer’s while in office?! Yes, WHILE IN OFFICE–you don’t come down with Alzheimer’s like it’s a cold. When Ronnie said he couldn’t remember doing anything wrong re Iran/Contra, he was telling the truth. And Nancy was actively feeding him lines and protecting him for his whole second term. Guess that explains the inexplicable affinity voters had early on for Dumbya, the Chimp in Chief.

  • It’s all reputation, isn’t it? I would consider LBJ the best president post WWII — the only person with the interest and ability to push through the programs that he did. (Though he might also head the list of most personally immoral (depends on if the rumors are true).)

  • Bush has The do not call list and…..ummm….Well, he has The do not call list to his credit.

    Actually he doesn’t. The Do Not Call Lists were originated through administrative actions of the FCC and FTC pursuant to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991. After the original set up lost a couple of court challenges in 2003, Congress passed legislation explicitly authorizing the lists, which were signed by Bush. But Bush never publicly advocated the original administrative actions nor the subsequent Congressional authorization. He doesn’t deserve the credit for simply making a statement while he signed the bill (it’s not as if he was going to veto it, after all) – he never did any of the heavy lifting associated with getting it implemented in the first place.

  • hark, as usual, I agree with you completely. I, too, can’t understand why people don’t take to the streets considering how this administration is, I fear, mortally wounding the country. I, too, think the dimocrats will not win either house of Congress and pray that I am wrong. But even if they do, things will be only minimally better because they just don’t get it. And sadly, even then, there will be no investigation and coming to justice for this criminal regime.

  • Regarding my previous post:

    Imagine if it was 1932 and the country had a choice between FDR and GWB.

    Imagine if the country chose Bush.
    Where would we be?

    See what I mean?
    Context is everything.

    So jump ahead to the year 2000…
    Global warming…
    Bin Laden percolating in Afghanistan…
    The Internet coming into its own…

    And the country chose Gore.

    Think about that.
    The country chose Gore… but Scalia chose Bush.

    And look what has happened to the world since then.

    You see? It is all about the context.
    Ergo:
    Worst. Unelected. President. Ever.

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