Showing posts with label Modern President. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Modern President. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 02, 2014

Obama Beats Bush, Nixon and Carter as Worst Modern Day President since World War II

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POLL: Obama Worst Modern-Day President

By Colin Campbell 

AP
President Barack Obama is the worst president since World War II, according to a plurality of voters in a new poll published Wednesday.


The Quinnipiac University survey found 33% of American voters named Obama as the worst while 28% named his predecessor, George W. Bush.



"Over the span of 69 years of American history and 12 presidencies, President Barack Obama finds himself with President George W. Bush at the bottom of the popularity barrel," Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said in a statement.




Richard Nixon, whose presidency ended in scandal, received only 13% of the vote and Jimmy Carter scored 8%. None of the remaining eight presidents received more than 3%.


Asked about the 2012 presidential race, 45% of respondents said the country would be better off if the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, had won. Slightly less — 38% — said the country would be worse off under a President Romney.


"Would Mitt have been a better fit?" Malloy asked. "More voters in hindsight say yes."

[MORE SPIN ON POLL!]


U.S. poll: more voters see Obama as worst president in modern times

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two years into President Barack Obama's second term, more voters say they are dissatisfied with his administration's handling of everything from the economy to foreign policy, giving him the worst marks of any modern U.S. president, a poll on Wednesday said.

In a survey of 1,446 registered voters, 33 percent said Obama was the worst president since World War Two, while 28 percent pointed to his predecessor, George W. Bush, as the worst, the poll by Quinnipiac University found.

Voters were split over which of the two most recent presidents has done a better job with 39 percent saying Obama has been a better president than Bush and, 40 percent saying Obama is worse.

Most voters said Ronald Reagan, who served two terms in the 1980s, was the best president since 1945, the survey showed.

"Over the span of 69 years of American history and 12 presidencies, President Barack Obama finds himself with President George W. Bush at the bottom of the popularity barrel," said Tim Malloy, assistant director of Quinnipiac University's polling unit.

While Obama's job approval rating has inched higher to 40 percent, up from 38 percent in December, more voters gave him largely negative marks in key areas: the economy, foreign policy, healthcare and terrorism, according to the poll.

On the environment, 50 percent gave Obama positive marks.

The telephone survey, taken June 24 to June 30, had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey; Editing by Bill Trott)


[EVEN MORE MEDIA SPIN]

Obama's Terrible Approval Numbers Are Terrible
By Abby Ohlheiser 14 hours ago

When asked a question often discussed with dread at family Thanksgiving dinners, a plurality of voters —  33 percent — believe President Obama (or "Nobummer," amirite?) is the worst president since World War II. In second place on the same question was George W. Bush with 28 percent. These are the numbers you will read in several headlines today. The thing is, the "worst president since World War Two" results aren't really the worst numbers for the president in the Quinnipiac poll from which they're drawn. 

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Let's address the headlines first. In the Quinnipiac poll, Obama finds himself among a handful of post-war presidents who garner polarizing reactions from voters. Those presidents, roughly, are Kennedy, Reagan, and the three most recent: Obama, Clinton, and George W. Bush. When asked to choose the best post-war president, for instance, Ronald Reagan snagged 35 percent of voters. But 18 percent thought it was Kennedy. Clinton took 18 percent of voters, and 8 percent think it's Obama, putting him in fourth place. (George W. Bush, for what it's worth, had just 1 percent of voters on this question).

If you look at the political breakdown by party of who is saying Obama is the worst, it falls strongly along party lines, with a little bit of help from independents: 63 percent of Republicans chose Obama, while 54 percent of Democrats said George W. Bush. Independents voted "for" both:  23 percent said George W. Bush was the worst, while 36 percent chose Obama. On a similar question directly comparing Bush and Obama, the expected partisan divide is even stronger:


Obama has been a better president than George W. Bush, 39 percent of voters say, while 40 percent say he is worse. Men say 43 - 36 percent that Obama is worse than Bush while women say 42 - 38 percent he is better. Obama is worse, Republicans say 79 - 7 percent and independent voters say 41 - 31 percent. Democrats say 78 - 4 percent that he is better. 

So the core group of voters strongly opposed to everything Obama does think he's a bad president, and the people who voted for him have a more positive opinion of the job he's doing. That's not a surprise. 
Obama's Terrible Approval Numbers Are Terrible

Which brings us to the number that's arguably the actual worst thing in the poll for Obama: "American voters say 54 - 44 percent that the Obama Administration is not competent running the government." Politico's Mike Allen agreed, flagging that number as of most concern to the White House this morning. This is the second recent poll to give the president or his administration a bad rating on a "competency" question: an earlier NBC/WSJ poll found that just half of Americans believe Obama is a competent leader of the federal government.

Although the poll marked a slight uptick in his overall approval rating to 40 percent, the president didn't fare too well when respondents were asked to rate his performance on a bunch of crucial issues:

  • Voters were 40 - 55 percent against his handling of the economy;
  • They also were negative on his foreign policy, 37 - 57 percent. And on the related issue of terrorism? 44 - 51 percent. 
  • Same goes for healthcare: 40 - 58 percent against. 
  • He did better on the environment, with 50 percent of voters approving and 40  percent against.
Then again, basically no one else in government right now is doing so well in the polls, either.

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