Obama Officially Worst Pres since WWII... Wait WTF??

[Crossroads Inc.]

From Reuters News

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.

[Related: The numbers that matter in Obama poll]

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)

I have to say I am REALLY curious just how this poll was set up.. It's one thing to have the Right Wing Crazzies go on and on about Obama being "The Worst President Ever" (shoot they have said that since the day he was elected) It is another things to have a "Poll" saying it in a somewhat serious news article.

I mean, do I think Obama could be doing things better? Or has failed to do things he should have? Of course.
Do I think he's a "Bad" president? Well, compared to the likes of Rgean, Nixion, or the Shrub, I'd says he's a Fcking Choir Boy!

[Edi]

Americans typically rate the most recent president as one of the worst. The poll and its results are meaningless.

[Ziggy Stardust]

Americans typically rate the most recent president as one of the worst. The poll and its results are meaningless.

Yeah, there's always recency bias with these sorts of polls.

And that's assuming the survey population and questions were unbiased, which is far from a certainty. Generally speaking, any political poll results are completely useless. It's way too easy to selectively pick people and ask them leading questions to get the results you want.

[Borgholio]

When history looks back and sees that Obama advanced environmental protection, brought our economy back from the brink, tried to bring about universal healthcare, got us out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and kept us out of any new wars...he will probably get much higher marks than the Bushes.

And yes I know that Obama himself isn't fully responsible for much of that stuff, but that's how people will look at it in 20 years.

[Eternal_Freedom]

I have to wonder how many of those 1446 registered voters are old enough to even remember Presidents earlier than Clinton.

[General Zod]

The hilarious part about Reagan is that if he ran in today's political environment, he'd be virtually unelectable. He'd arguably be attacked for not being conservative enough.

[Borgholio]

Right off the bat, I can easily count Nixon, Johnson, and Bush Jr as three bad presidents, with Ford and Carter as two lame ducks. That's five presidents who had less of a good impact (or more of a bad impact) than Obama ever came close to doing. So he's far from the worst president. Then you have the "good" presidents such as Kennedy and Reagan who did some good things but had either personal failings, political failings, or didn't really accomplish all *that* much but just had remarkable charisma to make you think they did. Once the youngsters of this generation get a proper history of past presidents they will realize Obama is actually one of the better ones.

[TheHammer]

The fact that Reagan was picked as the "best President" in the same poll likely indicates it was more heavily conservative and thus would explain the numbers. Its also worth pointing out that a similar poll during Bush's presidency deemed him the worst president since WWII.

As Edi noted, its worthless. You can't judge a president in the current state of affairs as many of the policies they enact aren't felt until years later for better or for worse. And you also don't know the behind the scenes information that tends to come out years later as things are declassified and various memoirs published.

[Wing Commander MAD]

What I want to know is how the hell Nixon isn't at the top of every such poll since his Presidency. Well, I suppose he could take second to Ford for actually pardoning Nixon.

[Borgholio]

Two reasons.

1. People like to hate Obama.

2. People who hate Obama probably don't entirely remember Nixon.

[Captain Seafort]

What I want to know is how the hell Nixon isn't at the top of every such poll since his Presidency.

1) Extracting the US from Vietnam.

2) China.

[Dalton]

Two reasons.

1. People like to hate Obama.

2. People who hate Obama probably don't entirely remember Nixon.

No. As explained by Rachel Maddow's blog, the reason is that Democrats split their vote while Republicans fellated Reagan and burned Obama in effigy. Much like how Fox News gets super-high ratings because every Con-bot flocks to their banner.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show ... presidents

[Channel72]

Nixon wasn't necessarily a completely bad president... he created the EPA after all. He was just a complete asshole - which doesn't necessarily disqualify him from being a "good president". George W. Bush wasted billions of dollars on a useless war, Nixon was just paranoid. Honestly, I'd take Nixon over any of the current generation of Tea Party idiots...

[Highlord Laan]

Americans typically rate the most recent president as one of the worst. The poll and its results are meaningless.

Obama is also a Democrat during the time repukes are trying to freshen their image and not come across as a pack of aging, angry, throwback-to-the-fifties, rich white men butthurt over the cold war being over, so every poll and media outlet will be used to sway as many stupid people as possible to their asinine views.

And sadly, it's working.

[Sea Skimmer]

Didn't we have polls under Bush showing Bush and Clinton as the worst presidents of the last 100 years? People hate what they can actually remember in any detail. This is why everyone likes booze.

[Borgholio]

Didn't we have polls under Bush showing Bush and Clinton as the worst presidents of the last 100 years? People hate what they can actually remember in any detail. This is why everyone likes booze.

It just proves that it's best to weigh a president's impact after the people who actually remember them are dead and let scholars do the actual ranking. Reagan made some pretty spectacular gaffes during his presidency but so many people still love him that they overlook things like that.

[Napoleon the Clown]

Ronnie Raygun being voted as anything but atrocious tells me everything I need to know about this poll: It's utterly useless and can be dismissed instantly. When your administration has more people indicted (with quite a few actual convictions) than basically any other administration ever, it means something. Iran-Contra affair, the bullshit with psychiatric support, raising taxes and ballooning the national debt at unbelievable levels... Asking the peanut gallery about their opinion of a politician is only good for getting opinions, which should promptly be ignored.

[AniThyng]

Ronnie Raygun being voted as anything but atrocious tells me everything I need to know about this poll: It's utterly useless and can be dismissed instantly. When your administration has more people indicted (with quite a few actual convictions) than basically any other administration ever, it means something. Iran-Contra affair, the bullshit with psychiatric support, raising taxes and ballooning the national debt at unbelievable levels... Asking the peanut gallery about their opinion of a politician is only good for getting opinions, which should promptly be ignored.

And here I thought the peanut gallery's opinion was also good for winning elections, silly me!

[Simon_Jester]

The problem is that we're comparing a living politician to a dead politician.

It's like, if Obama ran against Resurrected Reagan, Obama might very well lose.*

But to take politicians from opposite sides of the spectrum, if Mitt Romney ran against resurrected John F. Kennedy, there's a pretty good chance Romney would lose.**

A lot of older (quite a bit older) Americans are nostalgic about Kennedy, albeit not in the same way they are about Reagan. And Kennedy, like Reagan, had charisma... and has been dead long enough that his screwups are no longer remembered as well.

So any poll that pits living men against dead heroes is almost invariably going to make the living man look bad. This tells us very little about what will happen in a real election.

______________________

*At least, as long as Reagan didn't open his mouth and reveal to the entire Republican Party that he's to the left of them.
**Assuming JFK could keep it in his pants, because standards have changed in the past half century.

[Broomstick]

Right off the bat, I can easily count Nixon, Johnson, and Bush Jr as three bad presidents, with Ford and Carter as two lame ducks.

Given the circumstances by which Ford came into office and that he was never elected "harmless lame duck" was actually the outcome most people wanted at the time.

[Borgholio]

Right off the bat, I can easily count Nixon, Johnson, and Bush Jr as three bad presidents, with Ford and Carter as two lame ducks.

Given the circumstances by which Ford came into office and that he was never elected "harmless lame duck" was actually the outcome most people wanted at the time.

Oh indeed, I'm not saying he was a bad president. A few years of quiet from the White House was probably the best thing for the country at that time. But for people to think that he is better than Obama...why? Ford really didn't do much (which again, was the point), but at least Obama actually tried to help this nation get out of several crises at once and only got cock-blocked by the GOP who then point the finger at HIM for that fact. I strongly feel that Obama will become known as one of the better presidents once asshole-ness of the GOP becomes a matter of historical record.

[Broomstick]

Oh indeed, I'm not saying he was a bad president. A few years of quiet from the White House was probably the best thing for the country at that time.

Definitely.

My first awareness of politics was Nixon's term and Watergate - Ford was a definite relief. He made a very fine benchwarmer, which I mean in a wholly positive manner in this case, and I do think one of the best things he did was moderate a lot of fears by NOT trying to do a lot of stuff. The Nixon pardon was the most controversial thing he ever did. I don't know if it really was the best thing to do, but I do understand his reasoning for doing it and that there was a certain logic at work.

[Borgholio]

The Nixon pardon was the most controversial thing he ever did. I don't know if it really was the best thing to do, but I do understand his reasoning for doing it and that there was a certain logic at work.

His logic was, "Get over it. Something bad happened, he's pardoned, let's just learn our lesson and move on. Nothing good will come from dwelling on it."

The only other option would have been to prosecute Nixon and I honestly don't know if any real good would have come from that other than the satisfaction of punishing him.

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

Right off the bat, I can easily count Nixon, Johnson, and Bush Jr as three bad presidents ...

Which Johnson, Andrew or Lyndon?

[Borgholio]

Right off the bat, I can easily count Nixon, Johnson, and Bush Jr as three bad presidents ...

Which Johnson, Andrew or Lyndon?

Lyndon. While he did sign some civil rights bills, he also took a ham-handed approach to Vietnam which made that whole situation turn into...well...Vietnam. I wouldn't count him as a good president.