There is more bad news for the administration, as a new Quinnipiac University poll shows that Barack Obama (shown right front) has been pegged the worst president since World War II, surpassing even George W. Bush, who left the office with just a 34-percent approval rating, according to Gallup.
In the Quinnipiac poll, which surveyed 1,446 registered voters, 33 percent said Obama is the worst president since World War II, while 28 percent selected Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, for that title.
MSN News reported, “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.”
Interestingly enough, it seems that Obama’s presidency helped to boost former President George W. Bush’s approval rating. A 2013 Washington Post-ABC News poll revealed that approximately 47 percent of those polled approve of how Bush handled his presidency, while 50 percent disapprove. That is an almost 15-percent increase in approval from the time he left the White House.
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And a June 2014 Gallup poll shows that George W. Bush’s favorability rate is at 53 percent. That survey reveals that all living former presidents enjoy a favorability rate of over 50 percent, while Obama’s presently stands at 47 percent. According to that particular poll, Bill Clinton has the highest favorability rating of all living presidents — 64 percent — with George H.W. Bush coming in just behind him with 63 percent.
Meanwhile, in the same Quinnipiac survey, President Ronald Reagan was chosen the best president since 1945.
“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.
Of course, such ratings are not a legitimate assessment of a presidency, because they take into consideration merely popularity, and not whether the president has strictly adhered to the oath he took to protect the Constitution. If the latter category were taken into account when these polls were taken, the figures would likely look very different.
On the issue of constitutionality, a recent Rasmussen Reports poll shows that 44 percent of U.S. voters believe Obama has been less faithful to the Constitution than most other presidents, while 22 percent believe he has been more faithful. Thirty-percent say he has followed the Constitution about the same as other presidents have. (Then again, since all of the living presidents signed unconstitutional legislation, comparing who was better or worse becomes pretty subjective.)
Further, 57 percent stated in the survey that they believe it is more important to preserve the constitutional system of checks and balances than it is for government to operate efficiently, down from 60 percent one year ago, while 35 percent believe efficiency is more important, revealing a seven-point increase from last year’s survey. Whether it is a fair for the question to have presented efficiency and constitutionality as a dichotomy is certainly up for debate, however. A government operating outside the constitutional limits may be said to be “efficient” in at least one regard, and that is in trampling the inalienable rights of its citizens.
One thing is certain based on the polls, however: Barack Obama’s presidential legacy is in jeopardy.
