President Obama’s approval poll numbers have been sitting at low levels for months now. The botched roll-out of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) healthcare markets hit his approval numbers hard. The government shutdown of 2013, though caused by House Republicans, dragged down the president’s approval numbers as Americans grew ever-more tired of legislative gridlock. Foreign policy headaches such as the Russian invasion of Crimea and civil wars in both Iraq and Syria have also driven down the president’s foreign policy approval numbers.
Now a new poll shows just how little some Americans think of President Obama. The poll, released on Wednesday by the Quinnipiac University Poll, shows that nearly one-third of Americans believe Obama is the worst U.S. president since World War II.
This compares to 28% of those polled who said that George W. Bush is the worst U.S. president since that time. Perhaps even worse, 45% of those polled said that they believe the country would be better off if Mitt Romney had won the 2012 presidential election and a majority (54%) said that the current administration is not competently running the U.S. government.
#US – Poll Finds Obama Is First As Worst President Since WWII; More Voters Say Romney Would Have Been Better http://t.co/mE5B8s9wSm
— Quinnipiac Poll (@QuinnipiacPoll) July 2, 2014
“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 the Quinnipiac University Poll.
Well into his second term, President Obama’s approval ratings now sit at an all-time low for this president. The percentage of Americans who approve of the president’s job record hit just 42% last October, and that number has dipped to 41% in subsequent months.
At the other end of the spectrum, many Americans are pining for a return of the Gipper. Over one-third (35%) of those polled by Quinnipiac said that Ronald Reagan was the best president of the past seven decades. Other (relatively) popular presidents include Bill Clinton (18%) and John Kennedy (15%). Obama finished fourth-best in the poll with just 8% of Americans calling him the best president since FDR.
Image via the White House
