The Obama approval rating as been falling rapidly, making comparative ratings worse that George W. Bush during the same time period of Bush’s presidency.
As previously reported by The Inquisitr , the nation has been keeping a close eye on comparative approval ratings between Presidents Obama and George W. Bush .
At the height of Obama’s presidency he stood tall with a 58 percent approval rating. But but in May Obama’s approval rating stood at just 54 percent and as time has passed throughout the year, it has dipped to as low as 37 percent in October.
It is at this point in which President Obama dipped below George W. Bush in popularity, who stood at 49 percent near the beginning of his second term in office. The numbers tell the complete story of the difference between Obama’s presidency and Bush’s. From September of their first years in office until winter/spring of their fourth years, Bush was far more popular than Obama, at least as measured by approval ratings. Obama caught up in the first half of 2012, and has hovered around the same approval rating as Bush until recently.
Statistician Nate Silver weighs in on the comparative numbers game for the last seven presidents:
“The seven presidents were quite popular, on average, in their first term. Their approval ratings averaged 59 percent throughout their first term, and 57 percent in the final year of their first term, when they faced an election. By contrast, the same presidents averaged a 48 percent approval rating during their second term. Moreover, their approval ratings declined throughout their second term – to an average of only 42 percent by the final year of their second term.”
It’s been speculated that Obama has merely continued many of Bush’s administration policies, leading to a cynical view towards Obama’s core message of “hope and change”. Though the two president’s haven’t been directly compared in any poll in a head-to-head style, the numbers that have been coming in throughout the last month seem to speak for themselves.
Recent “word cloud” polls tell a story of the nation’s distrust of Obama , and their view of his presidency, which appears at this point to be pretty negative. In the word cloud format, the word “incompetent” was used for both presidents, and Bush beat Obama in the word “honest” with 31 percent to 18 percent. The word “liar” was also on the menu with Bush again edging out Obama at 18 percent to 13 percent. Still, President Obama hasn’t quite reached George W. Bush’s all-time-low for his approval rating, which stood at 25 percent near the end of his presidency.
So what do you think, was George W. Bush actually a better president than the current President based upon the Obama approval rating?