He's worked hard for this. It's taken years of failed policy, brutal war, incomprehensible speeches and plenty of smirking when talking about dead American soldiers for President Bush to bring down his November 2001 popularity rating of about 95% to Nixonian levels.
And now Bush has gone one better. The president is now, officially, more unpopular than Richard Milhouse Nixon.
Congratulations!
From Raw Story :
For the first time, George W. Bush has surpassed Richard M. Nixon in unpopularity in the Gallup Poll, receiving the highest "strongly disapprove" rating for a president in Gallup's history.The little noticed statistic -- publicly noted on Gallup's poll writeup -- made a single headline in Google News. The story, at Editor and Publisher, was titled "GALLUP: Bush Finally Tops Nixon -- In Unpopularity -- As Call for Iraq Pullout Hits New Peak."
"Gallup has followed its classic job approval measure with this “strongly” probe on only an intermittent basis over the years, so it is important to note that the historical context is fairly limited," the pollsters note. "Additionally, other variations in polling over the years make comparisons of this measure inexact. Still, it is worth noting that the current 50% “strongly disapprove” figure for Bush is as high as Gallup has ever measured. (A February 1974 poll showed Richard Nixon’s strongly disapprove number at 48%, statistically equivalent to Bush’s current reading on this measure.)"
That remarkable spike in approval and drop in disapproval on the left of the graph followed the 9/11 attacks.
